The Coming Storm (Re-write)
by Venom Snake-117
Summary: Re-Write of my first story. When a Storm is coming, the most we can do is hold up and wait for it to pass over us. But now the coming storm is alive with malice and death ready to wipe out humanities and all it's creations. But Ozpin has found something that can break the storm, something that can fight the storm...and win.
1. Chapter 1

AN: This is the first chapter of a re-write of my other story "The Coming Storm".

This is more of an attempt to cut the fat off my first attempt at this idea and make a more cohesive story.

* * *

Chapter 1

* * *

"Why don't we start with your name?" The social worker asked the boy as Ozpin watched from behind the one-way mirror.

"Thor." The boy said curtly.

"Thor? That's an unusual name." The social worker said as he wrote something down on his clipboard.

Ozpin silently agreed with that assessment but didn't think the social worker had much else right. He'd been watching the…interview from the beginning and the case worker had made the grave mistake of treating this boy like any other child, and he clearly wasn't.

The bizarre circumstances of how he'd been found aside, the boy's mannerisms were certainly atypical. The way he spoke, the words he used, his whole way he carried himself were all indications of someone older than what this boy was.

Ozpin thought he'd had a hard life most likely and was forced to mature quickly. Or at least that was the current impression he had from watching interview, more information would come.

But this boy…Thor, was not very cooperative. Ozpin had watched these two interact for close to an hour and only now did he divulge his name. Or, at least a name. The boy may be lying or misleading, Thor wasn't a name he'd ever heard before. It could be part of a name or some sort of pun, given the child's hostility it wasn't at all unlikely he wasn't giving his full name.

Still, what he'd done, how he'd been found. He was going to be one to watch in the future, if today was any indication, he was possibly going the be the great Huntsman of his generation. Well, he would be if Ozpin had a say in the matter.

And as luck would have it, he did.

* * *

Thor

A child's body, that's what this was. When he woke in the forest, it took him a few hours before he'd realized what was wrong. Now he knew, well enough at least, what this was.

A banishment, or punishment. He'd done something again to anger his father. Only this time, he couldn't remember what it was. Which was different, the first time he'd had all his memories suppressed. Now he could recall everything till…well he didn't know when. He had no idea of the lapse of time from when he'd been sent here to when he woke up.

He'd faced some creatures, which given his body and no powers, had made him fear for his life. He'd slain a few but was certain he'd of been killed if help hadn't arrived.

From then on, he'd pestered by social workers, police and a detective. Question after question, who was he, where were his parent, what was he doing the woods.

Thor answered vaguely, or not at all. Telling them the truth would more than likely get him sent to an asylum. Of course, a lesser scenario would have resulted in him just being called a liar, which not as bad, would still hinder him … whatever he supposed to do.

He'd been pondering it for a while and didn't have a shadow of a clue. For now, he'd just have to…go with the flow.

Which meant likely being sent to some sort of group home. He was going to have to hunker down in this life and try to figure it out as he went.

* * *

Ozpin

Thor Odinson, which was the only name he'd offered, was now settling into the Vale orphanage. Ozpin had interviewed the boy before he'd been sent along to the facility. And he was even more peculiar than he'd originally thought.

He didn't know what he'd faced was a Grimm. Not just the species, but even what Grimm were. He knew nothing the semblances, dust and the wider world. Or at least that was the impression he got, he hardly had time quiz him on his knowledge of the world, that would be for placement testing for when he tried to enroll in school.

Still, it was like he just wondered into the world with no knowledge of it. Even if he was from one of the number of clans to villages that broke off from the Kingdoms, he should have at least known about Grimm.

Truly a curious case.

* * *

Three Weeks later – Thor's "room"

Thor hadn't ever been one to care for "academics", so when he'd been given placement testing and utterly failed it, he didn't take it too hard. In standard areas, such as math, he'd done fine. But the history of this world, as well as several of the subject studied were totally alien to him. "Dust" studies totally alluded him.

"This is not Midgard." Was all he could really think. Yet it had some undeniable similarities. Humans populated it. But the test also talked about another race, Faunus. Some references to animal parts, but he'd yet to see one.

Then there were the powers of the "Huntsmen." Like Midgard, powers flourished here. He was going to be forced into remedial classes to bring him up to scratch, according to his teachers.

They'd asked him his age and honestly, he didn't know, so he estimated. He was close to twelve so that was the age group he'd been tested for. And he found himself acting like he was twelve again sometimes, despite his…experience.

This was expected, he knew there was a biological aspect to behavior and emotions, and that younger people, especially those in puberty had a hard time regulating them. And that became clear when he was told about his academic situation, he's thrown a complete fit.

As he sat in his "room" cooling off, he felt ashamed and embarrassed after the outburst. His older mind chided him for the childish behavior.

He'd just have to deal with the situation. He looked around him "room" and sighed at the fact he owned nothing. It wasn't really his "room", he shared it with two other boys. One was small for his age, timid and quick to yield.

The other was as tall as Thor, but heavy set. Yet was still remarkable athletic for his size. He was also something of a bully. But Thor didn't think he meant it that way, he just seemed somewhat inconsiderate.

The smaller boy's name was Grey, and Thor though that fit him well. Low key and easily missed. The other was named Olivier. They illustrated a point Thor was noticing.

Almost everyone had color-based name. In fact, aside from the man called Ozpin, everyone he'd meet had. If he'd known that, he might have picked a name that stuck out less.

It didn't matter now. He needed to live this life until he figured out what he was supposed to do to fix it.

* * *

Ozpin

If Thor's ignorance of the world was cause for questions, how quickly he was making up the deficit was raising just as many.

After his placement testing and one term in the remedial classes, his scores had risen to near the upper levels of his classmates. That ability was either the sign of true genius, or of someone who knew what he professed to not know.

Both options gave Ozpin a fair amount to think about with this boy, be he prodigy or deceiver. If he was just that intelligent, that was something. If he'd been deceiving them, the question was why.

What was more, he was unwilling to be interviewed or go further with the officials than what was necessary. He wasn't making thing easy.

But he was proving a natural in combat classes. Of course, Ozpin knew this would be the case, given how he'd been found. But his teachers were reporting instincts of a seasoned Hunter and knowing tricks that even they didn't.

And all his teachers noted how he seemed more "mature" than he should be. While he still acted a child at times, he was still more mature than his peers.

But when he lost his temper, he lost it. He'd gotten into a fight with one of his roommates as he bullied their other roommate and had broken the other boys fist.

It was a noble enough sentiment, but when he was worked up, he seemed to lose the maturity and rationality he had in other situations.

Still, he was proving a remarkable young man. Ozpin was certain he'd be coming to Beacon, because if his teachers could be believed, he loved to battle.

* * *

Thor

The world of Remnant, as he'd learned it was call, was incredibly like Midgard in many regards. But differed as well. He felt like he was half way home all the time.

That was confusing at times, but he did fell like this world was home in a fashion. Still, he'd see something not of Midgard or Asgard and it would remind him he wasn't home, had no power and didn't know how to get back. The body and mentality of a child also didn't help, his reactions tended to be more erratic and less logical.

But he was heart sick for his two homes. Asgard and Midgard, he was of both realms, but couldn't go to either. At times this made him incredibly apathetic and lethargic, other times it made him work harder to advanced whatever plan his father had.

His father. King Odin. He loved him but hated his machinations sometimes. Well most of the time, never knowing what he planned or what your role in them was.

But here he thought he might know at least the start. This world had professional Hero's. They were called Huntsman and Huntresses, but they were hero's. It was what he had been called to do over countless lifetimes, so that was where he'd start, becoming one of this world Hunters, and see what path his father had laid out for him.

At least he'd be in a role he was familiar with, that at least felt like home.

* * *

Ozpin

Thor was more than just a remarkable child. More than bright and strong. In his long life, he'd never meet anyone like him. He felt and energy coming off him when he unlocked his Aura and used his semblance. He couldn't place it exactly, but almost felt like the relics. But that was impossible, or he thought it would be, but the signature was too similar.

It was possible it was just a coincidence, but that didn't seem at all likely. Perhaps the gods had finally gotten tired of his anemic efforts and had sent another to help? Or blessed another with the power?

At this point he didn't know. He'd watched Thor for years and couldn't help but think the gods would have sent a more…tempered man. Thor was the most talented student in his school, but also the most hot tempered and likely to break rules.

He was quick to pick fights with those who annoyed him or picked on others. He was noble in his defense of other's but it got him into trouble for going outside the rules. But to his credit, he often mended the fences quickly. The first few weeks at the orphanage, he gotten into a fight with his roommate over his treatment of their other roommate.

Thor had ended up broking the boys hand, but soon after, the three boys had become the closest of friends.

But his constant run in's with authority figures had hampered any idea of bringing him to beacon early. If he could just learn to temper himself, he'd be the ideal student.

But now he was coming, ready to make and attempt for a spot in prestigious school. He would of course be allowed in, even if the initiation didn't go his way, he'd find some way to being him in. There was something of the divine in him, and if nothing else, he wanted to learn more about it.

From the divine or touched by it, there was something of the other world to him.

* * *

Thor – First Day at Beacon

Thor felt…oddly downcast despite the fact he should be excited. He was taking the steps fulfill his role and find his path in this world and find out what he'd done to end up here.

Still, he'd been here for five years and hadn't seemed to make any real progress in that regard. No signs or visions. But he'd grown fond of this world never the less, it wasn't without its charm. It was more advanced in a general sense than Midgard in technology yet fell short of what some of his friends and enemies built.

But he also felt the weight of time in way he'd never felt it before. Never had his godly mind been exposed to human nature so clearly. Even when banished as a mortal he retained none of his memories and the few time's he'd been stripped of his powers it hadn't lasted over the course of years during a large growth period for his body.

He almost felt like he was dying by inches, and that really wasn't far off. Weren't all mortals? He didn't fear death, but he feared what his people called a "Straw death", death out of battle. It would shame him for the rest of eternity to die in such a way. As a god that hadn't been much of an issue, if he were to be killed, it would be far more likely to be in battle, not from some illness or the infirmity of old age. Now the odds were much more in favor of the later.

He'd just have to figure out his father's plan. It was time's like this he found himself missing his brother, for all the grief he caused him later, in here younger years they'd been as close as it was possible for two brothers' to be. And he was the brains behind the whole operation. Not that Thor was dumb, but Loki was smarter and what was more, he enjoyed using his mind. He was good at puzzling things out in ways Thor wasn't.

But it wasn't any good wanting his brother there, he wasn't, so Thor had to do it himself, as best as he could.

Beacon in the distance had looked almost like castle. Seemed fitting enough, to train warriors. Still, it seemed…oddly well designed for defense for school. What did they need to defend against? Grimm were one thing, but that wasn't such a threat at its location. As he walked the grounds, it seemed even more evident.

Perhaps it was just to instill a martial sense in the students?

He pushed the thoughts out of his mind for now. It might well be something he'd learn here. Initiation would be the next day, and that was the only thing that gave him concern. It was never the same from one year to the next, and even exceptional students could be ejected if they didn't meet the proper requirements.

He was confident in his skills, yet luck was fickle and could turn the strongest into the defeated. He supposed there was wisdom in that, still it didn't seem wise to eject potentially powerful warriors on something so mercurial.

These thoughts kept him in his own mind, and he only vaguely heard some argument off to his right between two girls.

Then he was washed over with light and heat and thrown to the ground.

* * *

Ruby

It took her a moment to realize what had happened. Then a wave of embarrassment and anger washed over her. Weiss Schnee had been waving dust vile in front of her and she'd…set it off.

"By the gods." Another voice muttered, this one deep and clearly a boy's. Looking behind herself, she saw another prospective student climbing to his feet. The ash on his clothing made it all to clear he'd been caught in the blast. She felt her cheek's flush even more. Blowing up one student was bad, but she could reason it was just as much Weiss's fault as here's, but this poor guy had just been walking by.

She could only think that she was just making enemies and not friends.

"You dolt! Look what you've done!" She heard Weiss shouted and she walked over to the other student to help him up, but he was already onto his feet.

The first thing Ruby noticed about this guy was how big he was. He was taller than any of the other students she'd seen coming in with her and Yang. And he was broader in the shoulder's and heavily muscled. When he turned to look at them, she saw he had a full beard. Most of the boy's she'd seen with any facial hair only had it grown in patchy.

But when he faced them, he was smiling, and Ruby noticed something else about him. He was handsome, extremely handsome. His smile was almost seemed glow.

"It's nothing…really." He brushed himself off still smiling. "If a small dust explosion is something to be concerned with, maybe we aren't in the proper career?" His smiling not fading, and laughter in his voice.

Ruby was happy that he wasn't mad, and his demeanor seemed to have diffused Weiss's anger. Or at least distracted her. For a moment, she thought she might slip away while she talked to this newcomer. But she didn't fell right leaving without apologizing, even if he didn't seem upset about it.

"Sorry about…blowing you up." She said and realized how awkward it sounded. She wished Yang was here. She wished she hadn't said anything, because Weiss's attention came back onto her.

"You should be." She said coolly.

She wasn't shouting, but she seemed just as angry, but instead of hot anger, it was cold and full of contempt.

"Come now miss…" The boy said.

"Schnee." Weiss said "Weiss Schnee." She offered her hand. The boy took and shook it.

"Thor Odinson." He said smiling. If Weiss thought the name was odd she hide it, but Ruby couldn't help but turn an eyebrow at the name, it sounded…foreign, but in a way she couldn't place. "But I think you are far too upset over such small matter." He continued.

Ruby was mildly pleased to see Weiss look confused at it being called a "small matter" and in truth it made Ruby feel better as well.

"She detonated my dust!" Weiss said, her voice climbing a little higher in the octaves.

"Yes, yes, but no one was hurt, were they?" He said, "It is a small thing."

"But someone could have been!" Weiss said her voice getting a little louder.

Thor just smiled and laughed "Why worry about that? It didn't, and there is no point to worry about it."

Ruby was grinning as Weiss's face turned slightly red in temper, and she was a little surprised that at this she picked up the rest of her belonging and left her them.

"She's wound to tight." Thor said before turning to Ruby." I didn't get your name." He said, extending his hand, I'm Thor, but I suppose you knew that." He never stopped smiling.

It took her a moment to respond and gather her thoughts "Oh…right…" She reached out and grasped his hand and shook "I'm Ruby Rose. Thanks for…" She wasn't sure what to say but settled on "diffusing the situation."

"Ah…it was nothing, no one was hurt, although, I'd suggest being more careful in the future." He said, his voice kind and a smile still on his face. "I'll see you at initiation, I presume."

And with that he was off, and Ruby felt an odd sensation of happiness and confusion. Happy in she'd made a friend…sort of, and confusion at him telling her to be more careful. Did he mean with dust? Or with people like Weiss?

"Well." She thought "I'll ask him next time I see him. "

* * *

Weiss

She was more than a little flustered over the encounter she could admit that to herself. The sudden explosion, the fight, Thor and his dismissal of the incident. She suddenly found herself feeling like she was facing down two opponents rather than one.

She knew that wasn't the case logically, but that boy Thor had side with that Ruby girl, at least that was how she felt, she suddenly felt that maybe she had been in the wrong, given that he'd been totally uninvolved in her little confrontation with Ruby, she thought of him as a sort of objective outsider. And, if she was honest, she'd played a part in it, waving a poorly sealed dust container in the girl's face.

She didn't like feeling like she was wrong. She didn't mind so much other's confronting her, so long as she knew she was right, but admitting to herself she'd been wrong, or in the wrong was much harder.

It was true she'd been caught off guard by that boy's appearance. He looked like a hero out of antiquity in his good looks and hero's body. Almost like one of the statues of the legendary warriors had come to life.

But she thought his attitude was to…lax. And he seemed so…happy at being blown up. That was more than a bit odd.

Well, if he made it through initiation maybe she'd find out more about his peculiarities.

* * *

Ruby – The Day of Initiation

She waited eagerly to be launched into the forest as Glynda explained the rules and conditions. She wanted desperately to find Yang in the forest first. She didn't want another partner, despite making…well she'd say two friends. Jaune was nice, but he didn't seem really…qualified.

Her other "Friend" was two people she only considered friendly acquaintances and not full friends, Thor and Blake, so she only counted each as a half.

Thor had been kind to her when she had that unfortunate encounter with Weiss. Blake she'd meet later that day who commented on Weiss in cold way. They'd meet again that night as they bunked down for the night and Yang had tried to foster more, but it hadn't seemed like it was going anywhere, until Ruby and Blake found a common interest in books.

But neither could compare to her sister. Blake was to cold, and Thor was…different in his own way. He'd taken to sleeping in nothing but his boxer's, much to the discomfort of herself and several others, and far too much interest from Yang. She didn't think she'd be able to cope with that on a daily basis. Then this morning she'd seen him consume food almost like he was vacuum, out eating the combined amount five boys he sat with. That was…odd.

Between him and Blake, she'd pick Blake.

As she got ready to launch she made a list in her mind of who'd she wants to find first. Yang was number one. Blake was second, and Jaune and Thor tied for third, after that, she didn't know, she just hoped it'd be one of her choices.

* * *

Thor

This almost felt like flying again, yet he had no real control of his direction…yet. Spinning the weapon, he'd made, just like old time, he turned himself in the air towards where he knew where the relics were and threw it, holding onto the strap to be pulled along.

It wasn't as refined as his true form of flight, but it served his needs. As he watched the other students plummet into the forest he kept going, getting ahead of them all. He smirked at his own clever design for this weapon system. He still wasn't sure how he'd come up it, but he thought it was some subconscious level of his godhood manifesting itself in whatever way it could, in this case, configuring a weapon system to replicate his power, no matter how feebly.

He'd reached the relics and examined them for a moment. They were chess pieces. Picking up the White King he tried to remember the rest of the initiation process. He hadn't been paying close attention when it was being explained.

Get the relic's and get to the top of the cliff. Find a partner, that was the other part. Simple enough, he had his relic so now he just need a partner.

If he headed back the way the others were coming he'd find someone. Pocketing his relic, he headed out.

* * *

A few hours later, Thor had run into several Grimm but no other students. Making him wonder if he'd perhaps gotten himself turned around. He's never admit it of course, and the Grimm had provided some fun, but he did need to find a partner and get out of the forest before it was too late.

Looking into the sky, he spotted a large Nevermore. Not much to be concerned about, but he though he heard voiced on the wind, and thought he saw spots of white and red on the creature pure black feathers.

Then he saw both spot fall off and heard screams, and realized it was other students. Who would be crazy enough to ride and Nevermore? Other than himself of course. These two had peaked his interest.

One again using his gear to take to the air, he followed.

* * *

Ruby

The Deathstalker was making its way towards the combined group, the Nevermore circled overhead. Not good odds, but they were here to learn how to deal with these types of situation. What was more, she wanted to show Weiss she knew what she was doing, that she wasn't here by mistake.

She turned to the Deathstalker as it charged them and got ready to charge it herself.

But a crack of thunder and flash of lightning blinded her for a second as something struck the Deathstalker. Then something landed in front of her. It took her a moment to see a man rising from a crouched position and raise his hand. The object that struck the Deathstalker flew back to his hand, a massive hammer with an axe blade.

As the flash from the lightning faded from her eye's she saw Thor standing in front of her. Smiling the same smile, she'd seen yesterday, and she couldn't help but returning it.

* * *

Weiss

The man knew how to make an entrance, Weiss gave him that. How he'd done it she'd just have to figure out later, but he's stunned the Deathstalker, and it hadn't taken much conversation for the group to make a run from it.

Thor made a mention of fighting and finishing the Grimm off, but the other's, all of who's name's she yet to learn, voted for making a run for the cliff.

And they had, but to soon became clear that would have to fight. And as they talked over a plan of what to do, Weiss saw something she never forgot.

Thor spun his weapon like the blade of a helicopter, and threw it, while keeping hold of it. He was pulled into the air and Weiss was shocked at the pure recklessness of the act as he flew towards the Nevermore.

She was even more shocked when he flew straight through the Grimm's neck, virtually decapitating it, while a stand of flesh held the remains of the head to the body.

She thought back to when she'd meet him yesterday, and of the heroes of antiquity. The image was dashed however when he couldn't stop and slammed into the cliff who's top they were supposed to reach, unable to control his flight path after his launch.

The cries of the other's voiced their concerned over what had happened to him, but as he was seen climbing the face of the cliff, they turned their attention to the Deathstalker, and all together more robust opponent. Thor seemed fine, or at least well enough to climb, and frankly, they needed to see to themselves now.

Still that act had been simultaneously brave, stupid and oddly brilliant in its own fashion, even if it could have killed him. The pure reckless nature of it…and the force of the attack. Another reason to keep an eye on him. He hadn't impressed her this morning with his table manners, and his complete disregard for dressing decently in mixed company hadn't impressed her.

But his sheer audacity in his attacks was something.

* * *

The Deathstalker went down hard, but with eight on one, the fight hadn't been overtly taxing. Still tougher than Weiss had thought it should have been. She thought to Thor killing the Nevermore with a single attack but had to remind herself that Nevermore were comparatively fragile next to a Deathstalker. Fast and dangerous but at the cost of the robust body other Grimm enjoyed.

But when all was said and done, they had won. All that was left was to get the extraction point.

* * *

That Night

Weiss thought the room was small. To her it was, but this was what she signed up for when she decided to come here.

The day's events were a drain, and she wanted to get to bed. The actual initiation was tiring, and herself being passed over for team leader was a blow to her ego.

She was also surprised to learn that one initiate, Thor hadn't made it in, not being at the team naming ceremony. She guessed she should of know, when he'd meet up with them with not team or partner. He had his chess piece but hadn't meet the other parameters of the test.

It was a little sad, Pyrrha had been, in her mind, the strongest student. Thor had made that idea seem less likely. Such talent being cast aside…it was a little sad in her mind.

A knock on the door broke her own of her thoughts. Before she could really think of who it could be, Ruby answered the door.

"Hello!" familiar voice called, Weiss couldn't place it immediately, but that didn't matter as Thor walked in, holding a bag over his head.

"What are you…" ruby started to ask but was cut off when Thor handed her a piece of paper.

"That will explain everything." He said as he looked around the room. "Four beds…I suppose I'll just use my bed roll on the floor." Thor said as he moved to a corner and started setting up what looked like to Weiss a camp site.

"Ruby?" She said turning away from the…intruder.

"Uhhh…it says." She stumbled a she read the note. "Thor will…be staying with us." She stopped for a second to continue reading "He apparently didn't fail initiation, just getting a team, so he'll be a…'free agent', student."

"What does that mean?" Yang asked.

"He's…uh…going to work with different teams for team exercises."

"Okay…but why is he here?" Weiss asked.

"I was assigned to your room because I meet you first in the trial." Thor called from his corner of the room.

"So…" Weiss began "We are going to be even more crowded." All she could think was how she had thought the room was small with three other students, now another. "Great."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

* * *

First Day

Thor had left team RWBY to their own devices of sorting out the room. He'd claimed the corner and was more less set up. He didn't have much to begin with other than his clothes and bed roll. Such was the life he lived without a family or real home. The girls all had brought numerous items from home, which he understood. Being young and away from home for the first time, most likely anyway, reminders of home were a comfort. Well Blake didn't have as much, but Weiss had more, so it evened out he supposed.

He made his way to the cafeteria for breakfast before the first class of the day, which according to his schedule was "World History" but was starting later than normal to allow students to unpack. He didn't have a "team" this week, as there weren't any team exercises until the second week of classes, so for now, it was just school.

He was going to be miserable.

He was competent student, but it brought him no joy. He was a warrior, and book work was tedious. Still, he'd do it, because he had to. That aside, he knew that learning these sort things could be helpful. It was like taking bad tasting medicine, you didn't like it, but you know it was for the best. He still didn't look forward to it. But there was combat class to look forward to, even if actual sparing wasn't going to happen until later in the week.

It didn't matter much right now, he was hungry and as boring as the classes were going to be, if he had sit through them on an empty stomach, it would be ten times worse. As he made his way to the cafeteria he noted the cool autumn air and light breeze. He hadn't taken such note of the weather, oddly, in a very long time but ever sense he'd come here he noticed it more. Perhaps it was because for the first time in a very long time, it was out of his hands, and he was experiencing it as a human did. He was experiencing it rather than directing it.

He enjoyed cool or even cold weather, and here the air felt…cleaner than in the city. Inhaling deeply through his nose, he could almost smell the change of the seasons on the air. He stood enjoying it for a moment before continuing on his way to the cafeteria.

One of the things he noted on his first day was the extreme variety of food offered by the school. It was almost funny, but he knew that physical activity, combat in particular, took a lot out of a person and that a person needed to re-fuel after, that included getting rest and sleep, and eating a proper diet. And Beacon seemed to have gone to incredible lengths to make sure virtually any dietary needs were meet. It was almost funny, but he wasn't about to complain, because he was hungry and was ready to get to business.

By the time he sat down his tray was loaded with bacon, ham, sausage, a pile scrambled eggs, four fried eggs, four hard boiled eggs, a pile of corned beef hash, a dozen pieces of toast, a stack of waffles, a stack of pancakes, a helping of hash browns and whole cartoon of orange juice. As he sat down, he drew stares from some of the other students as he ate.

"You going to eat all that?"

Thor looked up to see another student, a girl he hadn't seen at initiation. But she was wearing the school uniform and beret. "Yes, that's why I put it on my tray." Smiling as he did so and took another bite.

She laughed and sat across the table from him "You're gonna get fat."

Thor looked her over as he chewed and decided she wasn't trying to antagonize him, just teasing. He could only assume she was an upperclassman given she wasn't at initiation but was clearly a student. He put his fork down, took a swing of his juice and extended his hand.

"I'm Thor."

She reached out and shook his hand "Sorry about that, maybe the nurse can help?"

Thor's face twisted into a confused expression, until he thought about it for a second and laughed and clarified "Thor Odinson."

She smiled "Coco Adel." She said before letting go of his hand. "You're that student who didn't find a partner right?"

"Yes, my fault for not thinking about the larger picture." He smiled at his own mistake now, but truth be told he'd been furious when he'd found out.

"Pretty rare for that to happen." She said, "I've heard of it happening a few times in the school's history, it's always one of two things."

"Which are?"

"They are either really good, or really bad." She smiled at him "Which are you?"

Thor realized the point of the conversation in that instant, he was being sized up by one of the older, at least in this form, students. "We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?" He said still smiling, but the tone of his voice cooled off ever so slightly.

Coco, still smiling, stood up and walked away. His teenagers mind let his eyes linger on her longer than he might of normally, then he went back to his breakfast. He thought as he chewed, he'd of course heard of the few students in his situation, he just hadn't thought about in relation to him until now. Incidents like his were rare, in part because initiation's test changed from year to year, but also because most of the time students were at the same skill level. In his case it wasn't skill that got him here was he'd sort of cheated his way ahead of the group with his equipment had just isolated himself.

He'd made a mistake in his rush to get in, he hadn't thought of the entire thing through. He wasn't always the best at this sort of thing when he was in the best state of mind, but he'd noticed the tendency had increased in his teenagers' body. He'd tried to temper it, but it was hard, as he often didn't notice he was doing it till after he'd done it. He supposed he'd just have the weather his teen years a little while longer, then…well he didn't know, but he hoped it would get better. It was funny, he'd never thought of these things the first time through his adolescence, but he supposed going through it once was giving him hindsight, but in real time. It was bizarre, and he supposed it was only something someone going through the same thing would understand.

As he finished, he brought his tray to bussing station and headed back to his dorm for his books for classes. He was mildly curious to see what the dorm looked like now. He had few personal affects, and nothing he'd consider decorative. But he was betting he'd be able to tell a good amount his dorm mates from what they brought with them. These girls wouldn't be his team, at least not in all instances, but they would be his bunk mates, so he wanted to learn a bit about them. He knew a little, from there encounter during initiation, but still, not anything of great importance, he had a cursory idea at best. Ruby, he'd meet and spoken to somewhat, and knew she was young for school's standard student, meaning she'd been accepted early. He'd tried for that as well, but his…behavioral issues kept him out.

As he approached the room he heard a commotion on the inside. He almost knocked before remembering it was as much his living space as anyone's. Opening the door, he came on a sight that was…pretty funny.

Team RWBY was in the middle of stacking the beds into bunk beds, which was actually a good idea. But what he was looking at was and incredibly hasty idea. They were tying the bed posts together and stacking them on books.

"Do you think…that is stable?" Thor asked as walked towards his books.

"Stable enough." Ruby said almost defensively.

Thor walked over to one of the beds and gave it a shove. It swayed but righted itself almost like a spring.

"Hey, are you trying to knock it over?!" Ruby shouted.

"If that knocked it over, it wasn't going to hold up to a person sleeping on it." He said with smile as he saw Ruby's expression change from irritation to realization.

"Oh yeah, guess you're right." She said.

He went to his corner and retrieved his books for class "See you in class." And with that he departed.

* * *

Blake watched as Thor left the room for class, before looking back to their beds. They didn't look nearly as stable as they should if they were going to sleep in them, but Thor's little test had made her reasonably confident they wouldn't collapse while they were out for the day. They' have to reinforce it, never the less.

He thoughts wondered to Thor. He wasn't…right. Something about him just wasn't normal, but what that was she couldn't place. He was strong, but that wasn't it. He had full beard, which as odd, but not totally unnatural. No, it was something else about him that was…not typical. How he spoke was, mostly normal, but he she'd caught him using phrasing and words that felt, archaic, in the time she'd spent around him. Granted that hadn't been much, but she still noticed it. If he hadn't stood out in a number of other ways, she'd probably not of noticed. It was all the minor peculiarities about that added up to him standing out, in her mind.

But she knew most other students, her own team likely included, probably wouldn't notice. She was on high alert for anything out of ordinary. She was though he might come off as a little odd to most of them, but she was more than little paranoid, but she knew that might keep her alive, seeing potential threats before they could get her.

In her rational mind, she knew it was probably nothing, and he was just a bit of an oddball, but she'd keep an eye out for him for a little while till she was sure that's all he was. It was probably just her paranoia, especially when she should probably far leerier of her own teammate. Weiss and she were already not getting along, and she was the heiress to the Schnee Dust company. Thor didn't concern her as much as Weiss did.

Ruby was nice though, and her partner Yang was…alright. She was nice and all but far more extroverted than she was. Overall her team, and roommates were not what she had in mind, but she supposed she had been lucky not getting caught just by coming to Beacon.

"That man." She heard Weiss say as they gather their materials for class. It was Weiss, looking even more irritated than she normally did.

"Thor?" Ruby asked, "What did he do?"

Blake knew it probably wasn't anything he'd done, at least not today. Weiss was in a mood ever sense the team naming ceremony. She hadn't been particularly cordial before it, and she has and understanding Weiss has some sort of run in with Thor on the first day. She was irritated about few things and Thor's little test of the beds was just something for her to focus on. What Thor had done was at worst a little rude for not asking, but the fact he was right sort of made up for it.

Picking up her books Blake left, not wanting to hear whatever tirade Weiss had about the minor infraction.

* * *

"What's Wrong with Thor?" Ruby asked Weiss.

"He's loud, annoying and now he's taking up space in our dorm, room we don't have!"

"But…he didn't choose us, it says here in the letter." Ruby held it up and was about to read it, but Weiss continued.

"So? He's still nuisance. Thinking he's better than m…us. Just because he killed that Nevermore himself."

"I don't think…" Ruby began.

"I'm going to class." Weiss cut her off and left in huff.

Yang had been watching as her sister tried to reason her Weiss but once she'd left she stepped into comfort her sister. "Don't let it bother you sis, she's…a little high strung."

Ruby smiled weakly at her sister's attempt to cheer her up "I kind of got that, but, why is she so…miserable?"

"I think." Yang began but pausing to choose he word carefully. "She's used to being on top, and in 24 hours, she's been shown up and not picked as team leader."

"So?"

Yang didn't know how to explain to Ruby properly, so she settled on "She's just having rough start, okay? Give it a bit to let her settle."

* * *

Thor was bored beyond what he'd thought his capacity was. These classes were dull beyond comprehension to him. He knew some found them interesting, and he did to, in small doses but not in the hour long lecture he was receiving.

Once the classes for the day were over, thank the heavens, he headed to the cafeteria for dinner. This was his favorite meal of the day. Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but dinner was his favorite.

His tray loaded he sat down started to eat and think about the day's classes. No actual combat classes until the beginning of next week. Boring classes until then, and he was considering maybe just leaving and going about the whole thing a different way. But if he did, he didn't have anywhere to stay, no money or a means to earn it, getting hired as a Huntsman was unlikely without a license. He was too old to back to the group home he'd spent the last few years and didn't have other prospects. IF it weren't for the fact his human body had all the frailties of humanity, he might have done so anyway, but he needed food and shelter. Well he supposed he could live in the wild, but that didn't seem like it would result in much in terms of his goals here…whatever those were. Or maybe it would, he really didn't know. But that course would be harsher, and frankly, the life a huntsman seemed more likely to yield result.

"Need some company?"

Thor looked up to the voice, and saw Yang and Ruby with their own, significantly less packed, trays. His mouth was full, so he just nodded and gestured for them to sit. Of his roommates, these two he got along with better than the other two. Granted two days' worth of interactions wasn't much to go on, but Blake and Weiss were far colder and distant.

He swallowed his mouth full before speaking "Enjoy the first day?"

Yang responded "Pffft, did you?"

He laughed at that and shook his head. "It was a bit dull, wasn't it?"

"I can't wait to start combat training!" Ruby added suddenly.

"Not till next week sis." Yang said while nudging Ruby's shoulder.

They all laughed at this. Not real laugher of a good joke, but the type of laughter, but one that was just people being comfortable around each other. Not friends, not yet but perhaps soon.

* * *

Ruby

Thor was…fun, she'd decided. She had liked him when she had meet him, but he was louder and more boisterous than Yang. She loved her sister, but sometimes she was bit much. Thor wasn't family, so she'd been a bit leery of him. Not out of dislike, but more that he would push her out of her comfort zone.

But beyond that, there was something about him that made her uncomfortable. She couldn't put her finger on it. She liked him, but he made her uncomfortable. When she was around him her stomach felt uneasy, and her pulse quicken.

She'd talk to Yang about it later, but right now, with Thor and Yang, she was having a good time now. It wasn't party or anything, but she was laughing, and she wasn't comfortable exactly, but this was pleasant. And it was funny to see Thor eat. He ate enough for four or five people, but he had such an athletic build.

Thor wasn't on her team, although she expected to work with him at some point during the year, but he was easier to talk to than Blake and Weiss. They were both distant and Weiss was particularly cold and almost hostile. Blake was just closed off, but at least her and Yang seemed to be building a proper relationship, but Weiss was just not cooperating.

She wanted to be a good team leader, but Weiss wasn't making it easy. She was cold and angry with her and she didn't know why. Well, that wasn't true, she had an pretty good idea it had to do with not getting the position as team leader. That made her sad and mad at the same time, but she just shoved it down to keep the peace.

She almost wished she had meet Thor in the forest, he'd been her third choice back then, but she hadn't meet up with any of her choices. But she didn't know why she'd put Thor below Blake honestly. He was way more outgoing friendlier on the surface than Blake. Granted she knew Blake better now, and had the idea she was just closed off, but still.

She watched Thor ate, and wondered what made him…not off putting, but made her less inclined towards him than Blake, who was also bookish, if a bit standoffish. Yeah he was loud, but so was Yang. Yang and Thor chatted while she thought on this, there was just something that made her nervous about him, that made her uncomfortable. She didn't feel…unpleasant around him, but her heart rate was elevated.

She'd have to talk to Yang about it. Her sister just seemed to know about these things.

* * *

AN: So more of a puff chapter, but one I felt I needed to write.

Read and review.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Next Chapter

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

"Jaune Arc vs Thor Odinson." Goodwitch called out to the class, and Jaune felt a chill run down his spine. He'd been hoping to avoid this for a little bit, till he'd gotten some training in. He knew he was probably asking for too much for that, but on the first day of combat class, well that was just his luck,

As he walked to his match, he felt like he was walking to the gallows. He'd seen Thor in the initiation and he wasn't exactly the type of person he'd like to face in his first ever sparring match. He did take some solace in the fact that Thor seemed to be an okay guy, if a bit loud and expressive.

As he looked at Thor's face, he saw he was smiling, and in that moment, he hated him. Thor was having the time of his life, while he was getting ready to be the worse side of a one-sided beat down.

But the feelings passed, like a flash of heat. This wasn't anyone else's fault but his and getting mad at the guy wasn't going to help him.

He eyed Thor's weapon, it looked like hybrid of a hammer and axe. Thor called it a maul, but Jaune couldn't help but think of it as a hammer/axe. He knew he didn't want to get hit with it, and he wasn't sure his shield would be much of a defense.

That left trying to dodge it, which was wholly unlikely. Thor didn't look it, but he was fast, faster Jaune at any rate. So that left the shield, and he knew that Thor was more than likely going to hammer away at his defense.

"Begin!"

Jaune wasn't ready for the first attack and raised his shield to guard. He felt an impact but it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Maybe his aura helped? But when he looked up, he saw the blade of Thor's weapon hooked on the edge of his shield. Before he could react, Thor yanked on this hammer and pulled the shield hard.

Jaune had to decided whether to drop his shield or be thrown to the ground. He let go.

He barely managed to keep his footing but stumbling kept himself up right and grasped his sword with two hands.

As he turned to face Thor only see the hammer flying at his face. He side stepped it and thought for a moment this would he his chance to, if not win, but put up a fight. If Thor had thrown his weapon, he'd be open.

He never got the chance before he felt a shoulder in stomach. It took him a second to realize the thrown hammer was just distraction, and before he knew it, he was thrown out of the ring, and out of the match.

As he lay spread eagle pondering what had happened. He'd lost in under a minute, which was utterly humiliating. But Thor hadn't done it by beating the life out of him, he'd disarmed and rung him out. Was he pitying him? Did he not take him seriously? What was the deal?

"Well done Mr. Odinson, excellent use of your weapon and distraction." Ms. Goodwitch said. "Mr. Arc…be more mindful of your opponents' actions."

Jaune slumped back to the team and was frankly thankful he hadn't at least been hurt. And Thor was one of the best students in the year, at least losing to him didn't make him look as pathetic as it might have been if he'd lost to Cardin.

Cardin was another big student but was categorically upper middle tier of their year. He was also something of bully, but Jaune was thankful he hadn't had a run in with him yet. He felt his satellite of friends kept him away so far. But he also felt like he was wounded deer and Cardin was the jackal ready to pick him off as soon as the chance came.

He sat through the rest of combat class in sour mood. The only up side was seeing Ruby deal with Cardin almost as quickly as Thor had dealt with him.

After class ended he felt like taking a shower, a long one where he might drown. His team tried to cheer him up, but he just said he wanted to be on his own for a bit.

He didn't go to the dorm showers, but the locker rooms, which he felt would be more…isolated now this time of the day.

As he walked into the locker room he contemplated just leaving. He was so far behind, and even though this was his dream, he honestly didn't think it was going work at this rate. He's just embarrasses himself and drag his team down.

"Jaune." A voice came out of nowhere making him jump.

"Who?" he said turning to look around.

"Me." Jaune saw Thor walking towards him. He was a little put off. Thor wasn't really one of his "friends", but sort of was satellite friend of his through team RWBY. Even with them, he only seemed to be friends with Yang and Ruby. Blake was distant, and Wiess seemed outright hostile to him, sort of like how she treated him. Still he wasn't a bad guy, as far as could tell.

"What? You want to rub it in my face?" Jaune snapped. He knew that was bit unfair, but he was so humiliated and angry with himself he couldn't control himself.

"You don't have place here." Thor said.

Jaune felt like someone had punched him in the gut. He knew it was right, but he didn't care to hear it. He was about react before Thor continued.

"But you could be." Thor said walking up to him. "There is…something in you. "Jaune was a bit off put by this, but listened. "I can help you, if you want."

Jaune was taken aback by this offer. But thought on it for a minute. Pyrrha had made a similar offer, but he just didn't want to show his own ineptitude to teammate, not matter how well-meaning she was. But Thor wasn't on any team, so that awkwardness may not be so bad. There was the chance of he might spread rumors. But something about Thor told Jaune that wasn't likely.

"I'll…think about it." Jaune said.

Thor smiled at this this "Don't think to long."

With that Thor left him alone to ponder the proposition.

* * *

Thor

Jaune Arc was very clearly not trained in any significant way to be a huntsman. But he made it in, somehow. Ozpin had to know, Thor didn't know the man that well, but he had the air of an old soul, literally, and didn't seem like one to be fooled so easily. He had to know this boy wasn't up to snuff.

But that aside, Thor believed all things happened for a reason, the skein of life was woven on day of birth, and couldn't be changed. And there was something the Arc, no skill, but massive aura reserves and a determination to at least try. The fact he threw himself into this with no skill set, while reckless, showed spirit.

He was being selfish in this regard though. While he felt bad for the boy, it wasn't his primary motivation for the offer. He itched to impart some of his advice to some of these students, yet he couldn't do so without coming off as pompous, and his teenage brain reeled against the idea of alienating his peers. His logical mind told him that wasn't important, yet he couldn't quiet bring himself to go against it.

Jaune was the perfect person to teach things to, he didn't have clue either way. And to be frank he liked the boy. He wasn't a great student, but he was a nice guy, sincere and that was rare.

He'd just have to wait and see what he wanted to do.

* * *

Jaune

That night as he lay in bed, he thought of Thor's offer. On one hand, Thor was in the top five students, as far as his own estimates went, in combat. Not many were better to try and help him improve. But then there was the fact Pyrrha had made and offer to help, he though anyway. She hadn't made an outright offer yet.

She'd be as good, or even better, she actually used a sword and shield like him. But the idea of showing his own weakness to her wasn't at all pleasant. He was the team leader, and he felt he couldn't or shouldn't show weakness like that to him team.

He was so uncomfortable with the whole situation but embarrassing himself in front of his classmates wasn't a thrilling proposition either.

Pulling out his scroll, he looked at it and realized he didn't have Thor's number. Ruby or Yang probably did, but he wasn't going to ask them for it. He didn't need them poking around, not that he thought they'd do it maliciously, but Ruby was overtly curious, and Yang was bit of a talker and he didn't want something to get out accidentally.

He'd just talk to Thor tomorrow, and…see what he had in mind.

* * *

Thor

Thor sat in his last class of the day, Grimm Studies. No word from Jaune but he wasn't that surprised. The boy was meek by nature, if he responded at all it may take a few days.

Still, there were other things to dwell on at the moment. His homework one, he hated doing it. But he knew it was necessary, at least as far the school was concerned.

As port finished and reminded them of there assignments, Thor packed his books and materials.

"Thor?"

Thor didn't have to look to know who it was, he was good with recognizing voices. "Yes Jaune?" He said as he packed up for the day.

"Ummm." He began "Your offer?"

"You want me to teach you?"

"Could you?"

Thor finished packing, before answering." Meet on roof tonight. Bring your weapons."

* * *

The Roof

Jaune stood across from Thor. He didn't have his weapon but had training shield and hammer.

"First." Thor said "I'll teach you the lines of combat."

"Lines?" Jaune said "What like…military formations."

"No." Thor said holding out his hand "Give me your sword."

Jaune was a bit apprehensive of this but complied handing it over.

"The lines of combat." Thor began "refers to the areas you seek to strike to win in combat." Thor slowly swung the sword in an arc. Jaune watched as it moved past in front of him level with his throat. "First the sword seeks the 'breath line', or simply, the neck." Thor swung the sword again, to show this. "Then the sword seeks the 'fat line', or torso." He gestured towards Jaune's chest.

"By what about the head?" Jaune asked.

Thor smiled and tossed the sword back to him "A viable target, but it's harder to damage than the neck of most opponents, the neck is softer and easier to cut, especially with Grimm, who I'm sure you've noticed often have armored heads, and the cutting the neck will achieve the same results in the end."

"Okay…."Jaune wasn't sure about this. What about stabbing? Wasn't that supposed to be more effective?

But what did he know, and honestly, he was thankful to have any help.

"Next, well, let's see your stance."

Jaune took his stance, or at least what he considered to be his stance. "like this?"

Thor walked over to him and grabbed his shield and raised it. "Keep your shield up, if your going to use a shield, don't let it hang at your side or in a lowered position, that make's defense harder and sloppier, that's what happened in class, you threw it up to quick and didn't have control of it, that's the reason I was able to pull it off you."

Jaune felt a little embarrassed, he though he'd kept his shield ready, but he guesses he hadn't. "I think that would have happened either way."

"Perhaps, but if you'd been ready, and hadn't let your shield drift, you may have been able to whole avoid me hooking it in the first place. This isn't uncommon for people using a shield for he first time, they forget they have it and let the arm go slack. Be mindful of you shield arm."

Jaune felt that was something he should have known for the start, but still, this was helpful information. "What else."

Thor didn't say anything instead shoved him, causing Jaune to stumble back and almost fall. "Man! What the!"

"Your stance, planet yourself firmer. Unless you intend to fight like Ruby and use agility and dodge and attack, which I don't think you do, you need to be ready to stand your ground."

"But…Thor, I'm not strong enough to just stand there and take attacks from people like you or Yang, you guys will pummel me into the ground."

"I didn't say stand there and take it." Thor said, "You can pivot and move, watch me." Thor pick up his practice shield and held in front of him. He started doing side steps and pivots, not moving far from where he was, but keeping a fairly wide stance. Jaune was seeing what he meant, if his stance wasn't firm, even if he moved, the chance of him being thrown off his feet were still likely. "Firm and stable stance is important in all fighting styles."

He looked at Thor as he demonstrated, and something was bothering him about how he was acting. He wasn't laughing or emitting the friendly attitude he normally did.

"Okay, I think I'm getting it."

"Good, then come at me." Thor said "I can tell you everything I know, but it won't help if you don't practice."

Jaune gulped in nervous apprehension, hesitated and then charged.

* * *

Thor

Jaune learned quick, that had to be admitted. He was still dreadful, but he could see him attempting to implement what he'd been told into what he was trying to do. He was already adapting, to what he learned. That was a good sign, he picked up idea's quickly.

His physicality was another matter. His attacks didn't do anything to his shield defense, he could bat them away or even withstand them wholly.

"Stop." He said and Jaune followed the command and looked at him "Jaune, you don't have the strength of stamina to fight like this. You may at some point, but you are just to aggressive and don't have the ability to make it count." Jaune looked a bit upset but kept silent. "Right now, you'd be better served to be more conservative in your fighting style."

"Okay, so be more defensive?"

"Not necessarily, but less aggressive. Remember the 'lines', your goal is to strike these area's, and as it stands, your skills aren't at the level where you can batter an opponent's defense away to strike them. Let them come to you and strike then."

"But won't that just let them finish me off quicker?" Jaune said, confusion on his face.

"Perhaps, but remember your shield, there are tricks that can open up an aggressive opponent who think's they have an easy target."

"Really?"

"Yes first, take Cardin Winchester. His attacks are strong, but straight forward. By sticking your shield out, and griping the handle, you can deflect his attacks, they will roll off the side, I'll show you, hold your shield up."

Jaune raised his shield up in a defensive position. "Like this?"

"No, like this." Thor extended his arm all the way out, holding the shield out as far as he could."

"But if he hit's that…couldn't it break my arm."

"If you took the whole force, but the idea is to intercept it and let him it one of the sides to deflect it. The way he swings his mace, it will make a opening for an instance in which you can strike, I'll show you."

Jaune copied Thor's position and Thor gently showed the movement. Jaune felt the shield roll in his hands and saw how useful a move like this might be. "What was the other thing you said might help."

"That is simple." Thor said and pushed his shield into Jaune face, not actually touching him, but coming close "Holding your shield up close to your opponent blinds them, and they can't see where your attack comes from."

"Okay…" He didn't sound certain, but that was fine. He'd learn through experience.

"That will do for tonight." Thor said, "We'll pick up tomorrow night, and we'll continue until your up to standard." Thor said before smiling the first time that night "You're a quick study, we'll make a warrior of you yet."

* * *

Pyrrha

Jaune came in late that night, clearly exhausted. She pretended to be asleep, but he was clearly wiped out. He climbed into bed almost immediately and she laid there, thinking. He was out practicing, she was fairly certain of this. But not with her, even though she'd offered.

Well, not, that wasn't true, she hadn't "offered" outright, but rather implied she'd help. Jaune however was so totally embarrassed that he couldn't seem to move past it to get help…or at least that's what she'd thought.

Jaune wasn't just tired, like the few times he'd snuck off to train on his own. But was limping, meanings someone had more than likely been training with him and given him a few licks.

The sound of Jaune hissing as he climbed into his bed made her think he'd been in an actual sparring match. That thought sent her mind reeling with possibilities. Who would Jaune trust enough to help him? And why wasn't she good enough?

What this person was, was sitting on her mind. Jaune didn't have many friends outside of his own team and Team RWBY. It wasn't anyone on JNPR, so she was thinking it would be someone on RWBY.

Blake and Weiss were not at all likely. Blake was to introvert, she barley interreacted with her own team, and Weiss was cold and sometimes cruel, especially to Jaune when he tried to talk to her.

Ruby and Yang were far more likely. Ruby was friendly, and probably Jaune's only real friend outside his team. Yang was friendly to him, but her interactions with him didn't go beyond that. If she would pick one, Ruby was more likely. But Pyrrha was certain she'd seen her go into her dorm earlier that evening.

But idea of Yang hanging out with Jaune however made her incredibly uncomfortable. Yang was such a flirt and outgoing, well it made her worried. She hadn't said anything to anyone, but she liked Jaune, in part because he treated her like a person rather than an idol. But it went deeper than that, Jaune was kind, sincere and she just felt at ease around him.

She knew it wasn't based on reason to think Yang would try to "steal" him, but it still made her stomach turn in knots.

It was stupid to worry about anyway, she had no evidence that anything of the sort was going on.

But Jaune did have a training partner. But who? Ruby was the most likely, and honestly that didn't bother her that much, but she was certain she'd turned in for the night.

She rolled over in bed, thinking about it. She had to get sleep and tried to tell herself she'd find out tomorrow.

That didn't help, of course and she didn't fall asleep for hours.

* * *

Thor

For the first time a long time, Thor didn't feel that hungry. He ate his breakfast without much enthusiasm. He chewed on a mouth full of bacon as he thought. The combat classes happened twice a week and his first one had resulted in him being paired off against the weakest student, not exactly thrilling.

It was true Jaune had a great deal of untapped potential, but at this stage, untapped potential and no potential weren't any different in a practical sense at this point. But that was besides the larger picture. He was bored.

Even if he got a chance to face one of the more talented students, he hadn't been overtly impressed. It was true some had some relatively high skill sets, not one of them was refined enough to challenge him in a meaningful way. He knew that out loud his thoughts, he'd sound incredibly conceited, that was a reason he kept his mouth shut.

But it was true, some of these kids were very talented…for kids. But he wasn't really one. He was stuck in the body of a teenager, and while he's adapted and adopted some of the traits of his youth, he still remembered how to fight, even without his powers, he was far ahead of any student. Not in terms of raw power, his semblance wasn't particularly more powerful than other's he'd seen, but his technical skill outstripped the other students.

He supposed he should have seen this coming almost from the start, but typical of his younger days, he hadn't really thought of things going anyway other than he expected, or in this case, wanted.

He'd held out hope of some level of enjoyment here, but he was finding it tedious and was considering leaving.

But he squashed the thought when ever it came up. This was the path, he was sure of it, no matter how boring it was right now. And anything else would likely be worse, and he didn't have anywhere to go at any rate.

Then there was training Jaune, which he found to be the most fulfilling thing he'd done sense coming to Beacon. He was quick learner on method and theory, and absorbed lesson well. Which was more than likely do to his total lack of experience, he'd do anything he was told by anyone he perceived to an authority on whatever he was learning.

"Hey big guy, you look a bit down."

Thor looked up from his tray to see Yang and Ruby walking to his table with their own trays.

"Are you feeling okay?" Ruby asked, "You aren't eating like normal." Her voice seemed mildly concerned.

"I'm fine just…" He said, not sure how put into his feelings into words.

"Down in the dumbs?" Yang suggested.

Thor shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head to the side, in a manner that indicated that wasn't exactly right, but close.

"What's got you down?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing…everything…I'm not sure." He took another bite of his breakfast. It wasn't till he spoke it out loud that he realized that his malaise was more than boredom. There was something deeper in his soul that was making him unhappy.

"Well…maybe…." Ruby started. "We could…do something about it?"

Thor looked at her and saw on her face a confused and contemplative face. Like she has spoken before she had any real idea of what she wanted to say, as if the thought was half formed. This was something he'd noticed in Ruby, she was highly excitable and quick to action, but didn't always think thing through.

"Yeah, like what?" Yang asked, and Thor turned to look at her, and she had slight smirk on her face as she looked at her sister, and that was an expression Thor knew well. He'd made that face many times when he was younger when he saw an opportunity to tease his own little brother.

"Uhhh…." Ruby stammered "I don't know, maybe…and I mean all of us…could go out this weekend?"

"Maybe." Thor said as he took another bite. Honestly, in his normal state of mind, he wouldn't have minded going out into the city, in fact he'd be excited. But he just felt like he couldn't muster the energy to even consider the idea. But he didn't want to snub Ruby. "Sure, Saturday sound good?"

"Yes!" Ruby said with excitement that Thor thought was completely to excited for the situation." I'm going make plans after class!" With that she jumped up and bolted off to Thor didn't know where.

"She's excited." Yang stated, looking at Thor with a smirk, and what Thor thought was a knowing look.

Thor didn't care all that much, but now the idea of going anywhere suddenly felt like a minor terror.

He'd been feeling like that about almost everything, the only thing that didn't make him become depressed was the extra training with Jaune. Even that only made him mildly interested.

"You sure you're…alright?" Yang asked him again, her voice more concerned, Thor realizing that his mind had wandered again.

"Just…thinking." He said.

"About what?" Her voice had changed for the playful tone she'd used earlier and was softer, and more concerned, like her earlier tone when she'd first come to table.

What could he say? He didn't even know, but he felt a compulsion to answer. "Just…life."

"Wow, super helpful." Yang said, not bothering to hide her sarcasm.

Thor hadn't known Yang long but sharing a room with her and her team made it so her knew her better than he did most of his fellow class mates, and he'd learned that she was hot tempered and somewhat mercurial in temper.

"Well it's true." He said as he took a final bite of his breakfast and picked up his tray to dump it.

* * *

Yang

If Yang didn't know better, she'd of thought Thor has snubbed her. She didn't know him all that well truthfully, but he was acting differently and far less friendly than he normally did. Something was clearly upsetting him, and she though that could be traced back to there first combat class.

After that, he was far less outgoing and much quieter. He's fought Jaune in class and had dominated the poor guy in record time. Thor was good, but Jaune was also, very clearly, way behind the rest of his class in combat skills, and the result had the most one-sided fighting that day. Granted Ruby had come in a close second with Cardin being thoroughly humiliated by her little sister.

But why would Thor be so upset over an easy fight? Was he disappointed? Maybe, but to put him in such a melancholy state, that didn't seem…right.

Maybe he was just going through a faze or was home sick. She knew she went through a similar faze a couple time when she was younger, mostly revolving around her issues with her mother.

Thor, was an orphan, or at least raised in an orphanage. Maybe he missed his friends there? Ruby had been nervous about making new friends coming to Beacon early. Or maybe it went deeper, and he was pondering his biological family.

What ever the case, she hoped he'd work it out before the weekend. Ruby and Thor didn't seem to realize it, but Ruby had asked him on a date. Neither knew it was going to just be them at this point, but Yang knew. Blake and Wiess were never going to go out into the city, and Yang would find and excuse, maybe her and Blake could do some "partner bonding", or something Ruby would buy.

It was funny that Ruby didn't even seem to know that she had crush on Thor was hilarious to her, and if Ruby wasn't already having a tough time getting her own partner to work with her, and doubting her leadership, she'd have been teasing her to dogs and back. But it was obvious to her at least. How she'd look at him in class, she'd talk about him when he wasn't around, how she shut up when he was.

She wanted to help in some way, but right now, it seemed her best course of action was to leave them both alone. Thor had things he needed to work out and wasn't in a mood to ask for help or talk about it. Ruby had to figure out Wiess on her own, not only did Yang think any approach she might come up with would make things worse, but it was important she do this herself.

But, he thoughts came back her sister, accidently, asking a boy out. She sister was so socially awkward that it almost made sense she made a bigger step outside her shell by accident.

It was something to think about, but for now, she needed to think about the rest of the school day.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I know It's been a while, and honestly, this chapter has been mostly done for a while. But as I was rousing it off, things came. I won't go into detail, but they have passed. I'm hoping for better production in the future.

* * *

Chapter 4

* * *

Thor

The weekend came quicker than what he would have expected, and his general down beat mood hadn't passed as he woke up that Saturday. Classes were boring, and he'd had a mildly more interesting spar in combat class. Weiss Schnee was far superior to Jaune in combat, in fact she was better than him is all academic circles.

But she had her faults as well. Jaune had no combat instincts, Weiss had a tendency over think in a fight. That gave more experienced, or instinctual fighter to take advantage over the openings she gave when thinking of her next move.

Still, she was in a totally different league than most of the other students, and honestly her overthinking was something he'd have expected to of been fazed out of her skill set with how well she was in other areas. If he were to guess, she had something else on her mind, not unlike himself. The difference being he was able to compartmentalize his problems when he fought, a skill that came with experience.

The whole event had made Weiss even cooler to him. If he didn't share a room with her and her team, that really wouldn't have bothered him. But it did, and as much as he wanted to attribute this to his teenager brain chemistry, he knew that wasn't the entire case. It was his personality even as an adult to enjoy comradery and bonds of friendship. He also loved to be at the center of attention on contests of martial prowess. Normally, he won, but he wasn't used to such cold reactions from the people he beat, at least when the competition was friendly.

Weiss was cold to begin with, but she also highly competitive and didn't like to be outshone. That was clear from how she treated Ruby after being passed over for the team leader position.

He lay there on his bed roll on the floor, thinking about his life here. He'd been thinking about his attitude and thought it might be he was feeling lonely. Aside from the fact he was alone in a larger sense of having outlived anyone on this planet multiple times over and seen things that might drive most of them to madness. But on a smaller level, he didn't have a team, or at least a real team.

He shared a dorm with team RWBY, but that wasn't the same.

But he didn't really mind that so much as he didn't feel like the students in his year had bunched up into those small groups and didn't interact with other's outside of it. Team JNPR was an exception, and they seemed close with RWBY.

It wasn't that he didn't have people he considered friends, but rather he felt like a distinct outsider compared to the teammates of those friends.

Or maybe he was being overly sensitive or emotional about it. He sat up and noted he was, as usual, the first one up. His internal clock was set earlier than pretty much any other student as far as he knew. Getting up, he grabbed his toiletries went to the shower.

Thor never really took long showers, but today he felt the cold water running over his body was usually soothing and stayed in longer than he would of normally. When he got out he looked at himself n the mirror and ran his fingers over his beard, or at least what passed for one at his age. It was full by the standards of a late teen, but it looked bad if it got too long.

He used a pair of electric clippers to shorten it and clean it up. After he was satisfied with the task, he started cleaning up, when he heard a knock on the door.

"Hey, hurry up! Other people need to use the bathroom!" Yang voice rang through the door.

"A moment!" Thor called back, as he finished cleaning and picking up his toiletries and walked to the door with a towel around his waist. He opened it and said, "All yours." He said stepping past her.

"Oh, thanks for the show." Yang said as, in a tone that told him she was smirking.

"Humph." Was all he said, and he went to his corner of the room to get dressed and heard the door to the bathroom close.

"Thor!"

The voice startled him as he pulled his pants on and he fell over onto his mat.

"What!" He looked up to see Blake, red faced staring at him.

"You think you should maybe do that in the bathroom!"

It took him a moment to realized she meant getting dressed, which he normally did in the bathroom for the privacy of his roommates. He'd just spaced out and forgotten with Yang rushing him out of the bathroom, because in his mind it wasn't that big of an issue. He'd gone into battle stark naked before on a few occasions when caught off guard. But he also knew humans, for the most part, weren't particularly comfortable with casual nudity. He didn't feel embarrassed, not exactly, but he did feel uncomfortable in way that made he feel almost like he'd been caught doing something wrong.

"What did you see?" Thor said as he finished pulling his pants on and moved onto his socks.;

Blake's face was flushed but was slowly returning to normal. "Not as much as I could of, given the situation."

Thor didn't press the topic but felt a twinge of humor for the first time in a week. He couldn't help but think of this as funny, even if Blake didn't. He was grateful it hadn't been Weiss, who would of likely reported him to the school staff, but Blake wasn't nearly as vindictive when she felt slighted. She was courteous if distant with him.

"Why are you smiling!" Blake almost hissed at him, trying not to yell, as Ruby and Weiss were still asleep.

"What, you don't think it's a little funny?"

"No!" But her lips showed the ghost of a smile and hint of laugh in voice.

"I promise to remember in the future." He said pulling his shirt on. Blake didn't say anything else but got her own thing ready for her turn in the shower.

Thor pulled his hair back into a ponytail and got ready for the rest of his day. Breakfast first, and he thought maybe he was appetite was returning.

* * *

Yang

Yang sighed with relief as she excited the bathroom. A Towel wrapped around her body and another around her hair to dry. The dorm was silent, Thor gone, probably to breakfast. Blake was getting ready to take her turn in the shower.

"Hey, you ever notice there's never any fog on the mirror after Thor take's a shower?" She asked Blake as her partner went in to take her turn.

"That's because he doesn't use hot water, all his showers are cold."

"What? How do you know that?" Yang asked as she started to get dressed. And found the idea of cold showers…interesting.

"It's not hard to figure out, if you pay attention." She said as she closed the door to take her shower.

Okay, well fair enough, she didn't really pay attention to the hygiene habits of her roommates. Still, she couldn't understand how or why anyone would take a cold shower unless that old joke was true. Which she honestly never knew if it was or wasn't, it was supposed to be a guy thing.

Now, as she pulled on her boots, she wondered if that was what was going on. If so, what caused it, if that was what was going on.

* * *

Thor

His appetite had returned somewhat, and he was feeling more upbeat. It was strange that what most people would consider, and embarrassing incident had made him feel better. He just thought it was funny.

Still, he hadn't shaken the entire down beat feeling. More like a gap in the passing storm. But he'd thought on it for a moment, and decided his melancholy was his own doing, at least in part. He got in his own head and wasn't trying to help himself. He needed to try and do more than go through the motions.

He'd have to try and make his time here more enjoyable. That meant connecting to people. Granted he hadn't made much of effort in that field, sense classes started he hadn't tried to socialize much.

"Hey Thor." It was Ruby "You eating again?"

"A bit." He said with a smile.

"Ready to go into the city?" She said as she sat down "Blake and Yang are doing partner stuff, or training, I'm not sure and Weiss said she had to study, so it will be just you and me." She blushed ever so slightly as she spoke but started coughing not entirely convincingly to bring her hand up to help hide her face.

That told him everything, and he felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. He liked Ruby, but not in that way. She was so young. Granted she was only two years younger than him, but there were times when she acted so much younger.

That wasn't going to be a fun conversation.

"So, first place I want to go is the dust shop. It's not really fun, but I figure we can pick up some of the things we need there…" She said and trailed off. "You know, I don't I've seen you use dust sense initiation."

"Haven't need to." He said and took a swing of his orange juice. "I wasn't going to waste it if I don't need to, it cost too, much to replace and I don't exactly have much in terms of money."

"Oh…" Ruby looked a little embarrassed, but pushed on "Well, after that, there's this museum showing a bunch of stuff from famous hunters and huntresses, I thought we could check it out."

That actually sounded interesting to Thor, it might help him get a better understanding the larger scope of his situation, learning a bit of history.

"Then I thought we could to that 'mech showcase.' I think that will be cool." She finished

"The what?"

"Oh, it's something that happens every few weeks. Different company's or even private builders make have they little tournaments between there different androids or mechs. Sort of a show case to try and get contracts with the government or private defense corporations, sort of way to show off what you made and try to sell themselves."

"That sounds like a lot of fun." Thor said, with complete interest. "When is that?"

"Usually around 4:00 or 5:00, we can check once we are in the city. So ready to go?"

Thor took one last bite and stood up "Sure."

* * *

Ruby

Ruby hadn't expected to be alone with Thor for the day, but she didn't find it all that unpleasant. In fact, she felt a little excited, her stomach was fluttering a bit, which she wasn't sure why. Probably just excited to be spending time with someone outside of her team, or Jaune's team.

Well it would be a fun day, never the less.

The streets of Vale were full of shopper's other patrons. Ruby didn't like or hate crowds, but she sorts of wished, in a vague way, she and Thor could be alone.

Still, the museum would be cool, and wasn't likely to be that full.

"So, Thor I was thinking we could go to the store first."

For Ruby the day was a waste. The museum was fun, but overall hadn't held Thor's interest. The show case was her last chance to salvage the day. Not that she wanted to of course. He was her friend, and helping Jaune, for what he told her. So, he was tall, strong, and handsome. And more developed than the other boy's in her class, she wasn't interested in that, no sir. She was going to be a huntress, no need for boys or men, nope she'd be a hero.

But Thor made her feel weird. She liked him, but not in the same way she liked Jaune or Wiess. He was just…different.

* * *

Thor

Ruby was clearly in a mood, which was atypical for her in the time he knew her. She was trying to have fun, but was so on edge and watching him, he felt she was preoccupied with other things than enjoying the day. What that was, he'd figured out some time ago.

For the time being, he'd leave the issue alone. When it would addressed, he was certain that it would clear when it came, for now, being a good friend would suffice.

The arena of the showcase was far less organized than he thought it would be anyway. It wasn't exactly an underground fight but was less refined than what he would have expected from what he thought it would be. The crown was rougher looking than he'd expected, or at least some of them were.

Ruby was clearly on edge but had an air of excitement as well. The arena was in a sunken with tiered seating around it, with the flicker of a force field around where the machines were tested.

The two previous pieces of machinery were being taken out, one by its tech team, the other by what looked like a scrapping crew.

Ruby took a seat and Thor followed suit, sitting next to her while scanning the audience. He didn't expect trouble honestly, but this wasn't exactly a group of high-end investors, although he was sure they were watching from somewhere, from VIP seating or a close circuit television.

The next match featured what looked like standard Atlas knight up against a much larger machine that looked more like a spider or crab. The Atlas knight was armed with a new weapon from what he could see. That he supposed was what was being shown off, given how this machine was clearly and already used piece of hardware. The weapon looked like a lance, one he'd of expected to see on a mounted warrior.

The larger mech charged the smaller knight, but before it could land a blow, the lance glowed with an incredible heat, and thrust in the heat of the larger machine, which seemed to bleed with the strike, but the fluid was molten metal instead of blood.

It seemed certain the larger machine was done for, but it showed life, and grabbed the knight in one of it's arms and tore it piece, before it died.

"A draw" Thor said, amused.

"That was quick" Ruby said, but clearly happy at the event. "I've never seen a weapon like that."

Thor was impressed himself. Who ever had entered that knight only wanted their weapon sold, but the team of larger machine should also be showing well, after taking a hit that should have disabled or destroyed it, it still managed to get a killing blow.

"Imagine if those two teams made a single machine, it would be quiet a formidable foe."

"Yeah." Ruby said as she watched the scrap being pulled off the field "a Grimm killer for sure."

The rest of evening continued a similar fashion, fight after fight. Ina none particular spirted fight that lasted thirty minutes, with both machines ending the match with missing limbs. But ended when one of the androids took the head of the other with a sweep of it's backs up weapon, an ax infused with fire dust.

The night was getting late by then and Thor knew it was time to go, even though there were several more exhibitions to go.

"Ruby, I think it's time we head back." Thor said as he looked outside.

"Awww." Ruby looked longingly at the next match up. "I guess you're right." She said as she looked outside. "It looks like the weather is going to turn bad in a bit."

* * *

Ruby

The day had ended better than she could have hoped for. The exhibitions were great, and Thor had been clearly excited by them, just like her.

And that made her heart flutter. The day had a slow and less than great start but had ended with bang. The fights had been both entertaining, and inspiring. She had tons of new idea's for weapons and upgrades.

"I think it's going to rain." She said, and no sooner than she did, it started to downpour. She yelped with sudden cold of the downpour. "It's cold!" and it was she was shivering before she knew it, and her attitude shifted from joy to misery in a moment.

Thor laughed, not apparently bothered by the cold rain. Instead he pulled her close and she felt herself become warmer, not just from his body heat.

"How can the rain be cold?" He said as they walked to Bullheads. "The rain isn't cold! You are cold and unhappy; the rain is neither cold or unhappy!"

It took Ruby a second to piece the words together and what they meant. "No, I'm…. I'm not unhappy." She said worried she's shown some of displeasure at the weather, but still blushed as she said this, she in fact felt hot and in incredibly high spirits.

"Ahhh." Thor said, "remember this little sister, all you feel is of your own mind." He smiled at her.

And her heart sank. "Little sister?" he thought is that how he thought of her? She hadn't thought of it before now, but…she liked him. More than friend, in a way she didn't understand.

He pulled her closer, and she felt herself become warmer, but sadder at the same time. A shiver ran down her back and goosebumps raised on her skin, in tempest of emotion.

"Thor, I think I'm…." She shivered again "getting to wet."

"Ahh, well I know what will warm you up, come on." He had his arm over her shoulder and lead her off the path to the Bullheads.

"Thor, if we don't get back soon, we'll miss the last Bullhead to Beacon." She protested, but not a strongly as she might have had he not been holding her close. Thor lead her to a bar almost pushed her in. "Thor I'm not old enough."

"Ha." Thor scoffed "You fight monsters, if you can die in battle you can drink." He said and wend to the bar.

Ruby sat there wet, cold and feeling exposed and nervous feeling she wasn't supposed to be here. Thor came back in after what felt like an hour, but could have only been a few minutes, carrying two large mugs of beer. She'd never drank before, but her sister had done so a few times, and Qrow was more than familiar with it.

"Here, this will warm you up." Thor said putting the beer down in front of her.

She didn't think she should, but she was cold, no matter what Thor said, and she knew one of the things beer did was make you feel warmer. And Thor had a point, if she could fight Grimm, she should be allowed to have the same privileges as an adult. Then there was the fact it was Thor, and she trusted him, in a way she didn't fully understand yet.

Slowly she lifted the mug to her lips and sipped. It didn't taste anything like she'd expected, given it amber color. It was hard and biting and she swallowed a mouth full.

"Bleh!" She gasped and stuck her tongue out.

Thor laughed and took a huge draft off his "First timers need to get used to the taste." He said as he put his mug down.

"I don't think I want to get used to it." Ruby said while she rolled her tongue in her mouth to try and get the taste out of her mouth. Still after a minute she started to feel warmer and calmer. Maybe she'd have another sip.

As she raised the mug again Thor smirked at her as he took another drink. She smiled back and could feel her face flushing. He did seem in a better mood after today, especially after the exhibition. It seemed like the fighting had gotten his blood boiling and invigorated him. And the beer was making her feel…better in a general sense.

She looked at her mug a was surprised to see it was almost empty. She didn't think she'd kept drinking…but she guessed she had. Looking at Thor she saw his mug empty, and it was hard to focus, and suddenly didn't feel like drinking anymore, and pushed she mug away.

Thor picked up and drained it. "Think it's time we turn in, come along." He said and helped her up and out of the bar.

Ruby realized that if she wasn't drunk, she was the closest she'd ever been, and he feet felt light and her coordination wasn't normal. But it didn't seem to matter, she felt pretty happy overall.

"Thor, I had fun today." She said, and she supported herself on him.

"Aye, I did as well." He said, "The exhibition was a great sight."

"I was worried you weren't having fun, but I'm glad you're back to normal."

Thor didn't respond for a few seconds, and in her cloudy thoughts, Ruby thought she might have said something to upset him.

"Indeed, I was not myself recently, thank you."

She wrapped her arms around him to support herself. "I like you Thor, I don't make friends like Yang does." She inhaled deeply, feeling in some vague way this would clear her head, and she could smell Thor, his natural scent mixed with the rain as they walked to the dock.

"Perhaps I should have gotten you a smaller drink." Thor said with a laugh in his voice.

"Hmm." She muttered as they sat down and leaned against Thor, because despite sitting down, she didn't feel stable.

The flight back was quiet enough, Ruby feeling like she was ready to fall asleep. But soon enough Thor was walking her back to the dorm. The rain felt good now, cooling against the flushed skin.

As they approached the dorm's she stopped and looked Thor in the eye.

"Thor…I think." She said, feeling bolder and braver than earlier, in the fog of drink. It also seemed to make some things clearer, her feelings all felt stronger. "I think I might…" She leaned in close to him, and his smile faltered a bit. She tried to get closer to his face, but he was so much taller than her that even on her toes she could quiet reach him. "I think I"

Suddenly, a feeling came rumbling up her throat, and the contents of her stomach emptied on Thor.

Ruby took a moment to realized what had happened and even her blur, she hadn't ever felt so embarrassed. She wanted to open a hole in ground and crawl in it. She turned to run away and was probably about to cry, but a firm hand held her in place.

Thor turned her in place to look at him, and the look on his face was not anger or disgust. But concern, he placed an hand on the side of her head and said, "Look at me." She did, his eyes were so blue and beautiful, and she'd just thrown up on him, and her eye's started to tear up. "Do you feel alright?"

Well no, she didn't, but she figured he meant physically. "Yes."

Thor pulled her face closer to look into her eye's more intently, and the concern he was showing started to scare her, he was looking for something and she started to think she might have been poisoned or something. After a minute or so, he calmed and smiled.

"I guess that was just bit too much for your first drink." He said with a sigh and a smile.

"Yeah." She said and jumped enough to bring her lips to his. Her first kiss, and she realized was mixed with her own sick. She pulled back almost instantly in her embarrassment.

But she was stopped again. And looking up, she saw Thor smiling at her. He leaned in and despite the fast she had just been sick, kissed her. On the lips.

* * *

Thor

His reaction was based on instinct. His mind may be old, but his body was young. And Ruby had, in few words, enchanted him. She wasn't the only one, her sister had attracted him as well, very strongly. But he was at the whim of his biology in the body. And Ruby was many of things he loved, passionate, strong, determined and beautiful, In her own way.

Only a couple years older than her, he couldn't deny an attraction. She was passionate, kind, and talented. He was drawn to these traits, no matter how old he was.

And despite earlier thinking's of her attraction with dread, now he found himself embarrassing it, and returning it in his own fashion. He thought he'd hurt her, but now, after the day they'd had his drink, he no longer felt like he had earlier, rather he embraced her feelings.

She may have vomited on him a moment before, but his own body wasn't used to effects of strong alcohol either, even if his soul knew what it felt like. His younger body didn't know how to handle the sensations of drink well. Combined with the fact he hadn't order standard tap beer, it was quite a bit stronger, and a boilermaker to boot. He was fine, but Ruby hadn't handled it nearly as well. Her boldness was more than likely drawn from this.

But he still loved the girl, in whatever manner.

"I think it's time we get you to bed." He said smiling.

Ruby looked confused, tired and most of all, drenched. "Yeah." She said, and he could tell she was on the down swing of the euphoria of drink.

As they made there way to the dorm, Ruby seemed to get slower and needed to support herself on him. As he opened the door to the dorm, Thor instantly realized something was off.

Then he realized he was facing down three young women who looked frazzled and more than bit irritated.

* * *

Yang

"Ruby!" she near shouted as she ran to her sister and started looking her over "You were supposed to be an hour and a half ago."

"I'm fine, I just forgot to call." Ruby said tone so nonchalant Yang immediately knew something was off. Ruby would normally be a stammering wreck when she was in trouble like this. Then she smelt it. "You've been drinking." It wasn't a question.

"Just one, Thor bought me my first drink." She said groggily. "He said it'd warm me up…it did." Ruby said pushing Yang off her. "If I can fight Grimm, I can have a drink." She said, more boldly than she would of otherwise.

"Get in bed and sleep it off but change into your pajama's first." Yang said.

"Yes mom." Ruby said in sarcastic tones as she walked into the bathroom. She was taken aback but the mount of snark one drink brought out in her.

Yang wheeled around to look at Thor, who was stripping his own cloths off, which were both wet and covered in vomit. He rolled them up and put them in a hamper to be cleaned the next day.

"You!" She shouted at Thor. "What were you thinking!"

Thor looked honestly perplexed. "What?"

"She can't drink you dolt, she's fifteen!" Weiss chimed in.

Thor didn't seem at all bothered by this, he just walked over to his sleeping mate and sat down. "But she can fight monsters and die?"

"What! She's not..." Weiss started to say buy trailed off.

Yang knew what made her shup up, and while she wanted to argue the point, but part of her agreed with it. The reason the drinking age was seventeen was because that was the age when person could die in service to the kingdom. Not just hunters, but enlistment in standard military.

But Ruby was only fifteen, even if she was still in danger of… no she wouldn't think of that.

"She's just a kid!" Yang yelled, or near as she dared at this hour. "You can't just…"

But Thor had laid down, not all bothered by the argument. "If you must discuss this, do it tomorrow. I'm tired, you're tired, and this type of conversation never profit anyone." He said as he got ready to sleep "We'll talk tomorrow."

Yang felt her blood boil, and she looked for support from her team. Blake looked ready to fight with her. Weiss on the other hand looked deep in thought, like she was contemplating what Thor had said.

"Well, me and Blake think…" Yang started and trailed off, to realize Thor was asleep.

She was about to wake him but when Ruby came out of the bathroom.

"Yang." She said, "I'm ready for bed." She said in a slur of words that told Yang her sister was both intoxicated and tired.

Instead of arguing with her, she helped her into bed. As she drifted off to sleep, Yang was hit with a sudden realization.

Her sister was in the Huntress courses, meanings she was in danger, even in class. She had come into a circle of danger earlier than Yang would have expected or wanted. Sure, she had been proud, but know, with Thor mentioning her being able to die, it had in some way made the danger clear.

Thor was, despite making as poor decision in this case, right. Ruby was going to have to be treated like she was older than fifteen. She was team leader and facing threats and tasks all of her classmates were, she was growing up.

Yang hated to think of that. Despite only being two years older, she'd taken on a great deal of the mothering roles in her family for her sister.

But she was in a world of danger now, and Yang knew deep down she could protect her from it, no matter how much she wanted to.

And in that moment, she hated Thor for making her realize this. Her baby sister was now in as much danger as she was, maybe more.

Still she wanted to be mad at someone, and it wasn't going to be Ruby.

* * *

Thor

The morning came slowly to him, warm and pleasant. Stretching his arms and legs in his mate, he smiled to himself at the new day, this all before opening his eyes.

Opening his eyes changed his whole mood. Yang stood over him, glaring daggers at him.

"We need to have a talk." Was all she said, and frankly she didn't need to say more.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I hope this chapter shows the last wasn't just one final attempt to keep a story from dying. I've seen it often, where you'll see a story that doesn't update for a while, you get another chapter and it dies. I hate it when other writers do it and I'll do everything in my power to keep myself from doing it.**

 **I'm not going to do that, in part because this a re-write and the only way I would stop is if I felt this was inferior to the original. And with all modesty, I do feel this a better story.**

 **But on that note, I'd like some feedback, from people who have read the first. How do you feel this compares to the first version?**

 **What would you like to see change? What would you like unchanged? Just some general feed back to know what the readers like and so on.**

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

Thor

Yang was mad, or if not mad at least very, very upset.

"We need to talk." Was all she said as she left the room gesturing for him to follow. Which he did, putting on clean shirt and pants and followed her out.

They didn't talk as they walked, which suited Thor fine, he wasn't in a mood to be chewed out by an overprotective sister. After some time, Yang lead him to roof of dorm where they were alone.

Yang didn't look at him right away, just looking out at the view of the school and the wild lands surrounding it for several minutes before she said anything.

"I'm mad at you." She said, which Thor already knew. "But it's not about getting my sister her first drink though."

"How's she doing by the way? I didn't see her in her bed."

"She's with Blake, and she's fine, no hangover, though I guess she wasn't much more than tipsy all things considered, I don't know why she threw up on you." A ghost of a smile flashed on her face and faded.

"Then why are you mad at me."

"Because" she started before taking a deep breath "You reminded me that my little sister is…well, I kind of forget how dangerous this life is, even as a student. Ruby, she's good, really good at this, I mean they let her in two years early, hell even you and Pyrrha didn't get that." Pride shown on her face. "But, last night also reminded me that Ruby is…well not totally connected to what this like." She took a deep breath and sighed. "She think life is like a story, that things just work out for the best no matter what, and we both know that's not true at all."

"Indeed. So, you not really mad at me, but rather worried about your sister."

"No, I'm mad at you over that two." She said, but the ghost smile was back. "I had my first drink when I was fourteen, so I don't think I've got much of moral stance on this. Still, I don't like the fact you just took her to a bar. I know I'm not her mom, but…I kind of was when we were younger and I'm…protective of her."

"I understand." She smiled at him in way told him she didn't believe he really did understand. Well of course she'd think he didn't, as far as she knew, he had no family. But when he was a child, he had looked out for and had been very protective of Loki, before their relationship soured. "Well maybe I don't." He said, letting her have it, thinking it might also help calm her. "But I promise not to overstep the boundary's again."

"Thanks." She said, but Thor sense there was more she wanted to say, and he could now tell there was something else on her mind, and it was possibly the main reason she'd brought him up here. "She likes you, I'm sure you know."

"Oh, I know." He said, recalling the night before, but thought I might be prudent to keep that little piece of information himself.

"Ruby…she'd sweet, and great, but she's a total dork." Yang said, and it was amusing to hear her say they word with such affection laced into it. "She's never shown much interest in…dating or even in boys or girl, to obsessed with making her like into one of the favorite stories, and her favorites were the warriors and hero's, not princess finding prince charming."

"So…what do you want from me?" He asked even though he had a good guess.

"Just…what ever or how ever that goes, just…try to keep her feelings in mind okay? She's actually really sensitive."

"I'd figured that out, and I would never hurt her." He said before adding "Or any of you, you are my friends. I'm sorry I've caused such an un pleasant situation. I hope Wiess and Blake aren't to angry with me."

"Well, Blake I'm not as sure about, she play's her card close to the chest, but Weiss was pretty mad last night, I think you might want to make piece with the Ice Queen sooner rather than later, she can be a terror when she's upset with someone."

"Aye, I can tell, she reminded me of someone I used to know." He said smiling. "A long time ago." And his smile faded as the memory made him miss his friends and family from before.

* * *

Blake

Ruby was doing terribly this morning. She wasn't sick or hungover, but she still had a lot of on her mind and was extremely distressed over it.

"It was stupid Blake, I can't believe I did that, and I threw up on him right before, what was I thinking? I just want to crawl in a hole." Her face was in her hands and even then, Blake could see her face was flushed red.

Blake felt a little weird Ruby was telling her thing and not Yang, but she got the feeling that Ruby just needed to tell someone about her unfortunate incident. Wiess was gone to who knew where, and Yang was have her talk with Thor.

"Well, he didn't seem upset right?" was all she could think to say. Thor was one of the most relaxed people she'd ever meet,

"Blake, I threw up on him and then I decided that was a good time for my first kiss."

Yeah, it sounded bad. Still, despite Blake couldn't help but think it was sweet, in a messed-up way. Ruby had stolen her first kiss from her first crush, and despite it not being ideal, Thor hadn't crushed her. And even given her a kiss back.

Thor was many things but cruel was not one of them, and while she'd been upset with him last night, Ruby's story had softened her to him. She still didn't think he'd made a wise decision to take Ruby to a bar, he'd been kind to her despite her vomiting on him.

Thor was, despite how loud and boisterous he was, a good guy. She'd known people who'd of turned the same situation Thor had been in to a much darker purpose. Of course, that alone didn't make him good, but how he'd handled Ruby was surprisingly gentle for someone most people would think was more like Cardin. Of course anyone who knew Thor knew that the similarities between those two boys purely superficial, aside from both being large, loud and confident had little to nothing in common.

"Ruby." She began, trying to think of something to comfort her "Try not to worry about it." Weak advice, but she couldn't think of anything better.

"Blake you don't understand, I've never liked anyone like this before and I embarrassed myself right when I told him." Her voice was cracking in her panic.

"But he didn't care right? He wasn't made, he was worried, and he didn't reject it, overall, If anything I'd say that was pretty good result." Ruby just moaned in despair "Well try to think of it like this, if this was how you told him, and he even kissed you back, that's probably the best possible way for it to have gone, it means he likes you back, and not just a little, but he really likes you."

Ruby looked up from her hands and her face was losing some of its color, and her eyes didn't look so forlorn "You think so?"

* * *

Wiess

Wiess was more than a bit jealous. Ruby was her partner, and last night all of a sudden, it felt like Thor had usurped her position. It was foolish of course, but still, her and Ruby didn't always get along, as different was they were and her and Thor got along very well. It would have been easier if the two were more alike, but Thor was out going, boisterous and confident. Ruby was introverted, meek and unsure of herself in many situations.

But they had meshed in a way she and Ruby hadn't. That, was of course partly her own fault, she knew she was cold and distant at times, or maybe most times.

But on the other side of things, it made her jealous that Thor gave Ruby so much more attention than her, which was of course insane. She didn't like him like that, but she was used to boys trying to get her attention, Jaune had been particularly persistent, but he wasn't the only one. But not Thor. It was another blow to her ego.

What did Ruby have that she didn't? Sure, she was a "prodigy", but still, what drew people to her that she didn't have? Not looks, that was for sure. Not that Ruby was ugly, far from it in face, she had a natural beauty that most girls would wish for, but she didn't care for her appearance like Wiess did or Yang or even Blake.

Wiess's whole experience at Beacon had been such a culture shock. Which was what she had wanted, something different, but she hadn't been expecting to have her own sense of self worth be challenged so heavily.

"Why?" was all she could think, and for so many reasons.

* * *

Monday

Thor

As he walked into combat class, Thor felt oddly energized after his little weekend adventure. He and Ruby hadn't addressed the incident directly, but they did seem closer now. She laughed more he noticed, and he spoke more easily.

Taking his seat, Ruby sat next to him, smiling, but with a slight flush to her cheeks.

She was so…pure. Yang had clarified something about her he'd suspected for some time. He didn't call it innocence's, because that wasn't right, but she seemed untouched by the darkness of the world.

"Okay everyone settle down." Goodwitch said to the class. "For out first match I'd like Pyrrha Nikos and Thor Odinson to come to the ring."

And Thor felt the tension in the air.

* * *

Wiess

Wiess of course had been expecting this sooner or later, and the excitement in the air was palpable. Thor and Pyrrha were tied for the top spot in combat classes. And they both had managed to keep their semblances hidden from the larger student pool.

She'd faced Thor and he'd made her feel slow. While she was thinking of what to do, he'd made his attacks. His battle sense was better than hers was right now, he didn't need to think, he acted. She'd never faced Pyrrha, but she moved with similar ease, and no one seemed to able to touch her.

As the two got ready to face each other, she started to figure out who's win. Without know semblances, a major factor, she knew her guess wouldn't be truly informed, but she did it anyway.

Thor had the advantage strength, Pyrrha was nimbler. Thor's weapon didn't have multiple forms like Pyrrha, and he carried no shield. But he'd made his maul, so he could throw it and call it back, a good disrupting weapon if he could control how it returned.

Thor was also the better improvisor from what she'd seen. He was dynamic and ever changing in how he approached opponents. But that may be simply the fact Pyrrha's techniques worked so well she didn't need to adapt like Thor had to.

She hadn't made up her mind when the two entered the ring and had forgotten it once the match started.

She watched Thor rushed Pyrrha swinging his maul one handed, and Pyrrha slipped it, only for Thor to bring it back around for another attack, which was dodged again. And Thor kept swinging and kept missing.

Then Pyrrha countered attacked, slicing Thor across the chest, sending his staggering back, swinging his maul at her, only to miss.

This was one-sided, and Wiess found herself disappointed, Thor wasn't living up to his reputation. But she knew it wasn't his lack of skill, Pyrrha was just too hard to hit.

Then Thor threw his maul, again Pyrrha dodged and charged, only to have to roll to avoid the maul as it came back to Thor's hand who swung it again, this time landing a solid hit, but only on the Pyrrha's shield.

But Wiess smelled something burning, like the ozone after an electric surge or lighting strike. And before she puzzled it out, a bright flashed appeared on the points of maul connecting with shield and heard a loud thunder clap, that made her cover her ears and the flashed made her blink several times to try and clear them.

The next thing she saw was the melted and shattered remains of Pyrrha's shield cast aside. And Thor standing in the ring, with his hair whipping around him like he was in a wind storm., but Pyrrha looking like he was being pushed around by a hurricane, her footing uneven, and even being moved slightly. She even felt a slight breeze in her seat, despite being inside.

This had to be Thor's semblance, some sort of localized weather manipulation? That was strong, but would Pyrrha responsed with hers? Or maybe hers was subtler.

Soon the match had flipped, with the wind as strong as it was in the ring, Pyrrha couldn't move like before, and with her shield gone, her defenses were lower. And Thor was sending lighting arcing towards her, and she somehow redirected it, not making contact.

And Thor was somehow, when ever he got close, pushed away or tripped, but kept the pressure on Pyrrha, forcing her back and back.

Then he threw his maul again, thing time it glowed blue and arced lighting off it and Pyrrha charged and struck a clean hit on him.

But instead of backing away, he stepped into it, and wrapped his armed around her torso and lifted her up and slammed her into the ground hard enough to make her bounce off it. And raising his foot, lighting arced off his boot and he stomped down on her, only for her to raise her hand in defense, and the lighting arced off in every direction away from her.

"Enough!" Goodwitch yelled and separated the two her own semblance, throwing them apart. "This match ends in a draw. Both of you did well, but please try to remember, we are inside surrounded by other students."

Wiess looked down as some of the students sitting nearer to the fight and noticed several of them had minors burns. Goodwitch had stopped the fight because it was starting spill outside the ring. First years didn't typically have that issue, but these two did. There was reason combat class for older students was held outdoors, and she was seeing why.

And she was sure she'd seen both of there semblances, Thor's for sure, but Pyrrha was less clear, although she was certain he had of used it, with how the lightning was deflected.

She had certainly put up and excellent show, but it had become clear she was on the back heal in the second half of the fight. Of course, she wouldn't know who would have won now, but Thor had been winning when it had ended. Still one never knew what would happen.

"Next up." Goodwitch called "Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester."

* * *

Ruby

Thor and Pyrrha's match had her blood pumping, it was the first time she'd seen the both push their limits in class, and the first time she'd seen a dual end in a draw.

But as Thor took his seat next to her, she watched as Jaune entered the rings against Cardin was worried for him. Thor had been training him, but how much that would help would be seen.

The fight started with Cardin bull rushing Jaune, but with skill she wouldn't have thought he had, he pushed his shield out to meet the mace and let it roll to the side. And in that instant, he sliced at Cardin's neck, dropping his aura by a fair amount.

Cardin was surprised and angered at his and spun to strike again, but fell for the same trick again, only Jaune struck twice.

Jaune was winning, but it was clear as soon as Cardin wised up, things wouldn't stand. Jaune put up a good fight, but with one massive and well-placed strike, was thrown from the ring and the match was called.

"Well done both of you." Goodwitch said "Mr. Winchester, it may be to your benefit you to be more conservative, Mr. Arc, you've show improvement, but I believe you should focus on your physicality."

Both left the ring, Cardin scowling despite winning and Jaune smiling, despite losing his match. He was much better.

* * *

Thor

As class got out, Thor looked for Pyrrha. She wasn't just the better than her peers, she was on a whole different level, and for first time sense he started here, he had to try to win. Granted her semblance had made it much more problematic than he expected. It only took him a few attacks to figure it out, he'd faced similar powers before and hers were weaker and he'd adjusted.

He'd have won if Goodwitch hadn't stopped the match. But he may of also cause more damage than he'd intended. He didn't have as much practice with his semblance as he probably should have, and its very nature made it hard to control.

But still his blood was on fire from the fight, and Jaune had proven his worth as well. The standard of his class mates was rising, and he was getting excited.

"Thor." Ruby's voice broke his thought.

"Yes?"

She rushed up to him and grabbed his hand. "I'm…impressed with how you fought." And while blushing, kissed him on the cheek.

Thor noticed several students looked with curiosity, some with jealousy, he smiled a kissed her on the top the head.

She squealed and laughed in surprise but was clearly overjoyed with it. He found himself over joyed with her and picked her up.

"Thor stop!" she squealed laughing, but clearly didn't mean, and he placed her on her shoulder to carry to the next class.

* * *

Jaune

He felt better than he had in weeks. Thor had helped him in ways he hadn't imagined. Such simple tricks made his performance so much better.

But in his heart, he felt sick. Not in his performance today, he'd done much better. But more about himself. He couldn't help but compare himself to Thor and Pyrrha. His partner and teacher.

He was associated with the two best students in his year, possibly in the school. And he was the worst by any regard.

Still, they both treated him well and showed faith in him. Which he didn't feel he deserved.

But seeing Thor's interactions with Ruby, ending with him putting her on his shoulder made his blood run hot and he didn't know why. Ruby was the first friend he'd made here, and she was better than him by a huge margin as well, with the added fact she was accepted two years early.

His overall outlook right now was mixed, and the conflicting emotions made his stomach stir. Yes, he was on the up swing overall, but at the same time, he was still trailing behind all the people was closest to and it was only through the generosity of people more talented than himself he made any progress.

He couldn't pay them back, for the kindness and support they'd given him, but one day, he hoped he could.

As he left, his eye's feel on Cardin, who glanced at him and looked away. Jaune may have lost, but he could tell Cardin hadn't been expecting the fight to be as close as it was. Honestly, if they had another match right now, Jaune suspected he wouldn't fair nearly as well, he was better, but Cardin hadn't taken him seriously at the start.

Honestly, while he knew his skill was better and his conditioning had improved, the biggest change was he was much calmer and collected. Still, it was better and that did make him feel like less of a burden.

"Jaune are you coming?" Ren voice broke him from his thoughts and he rushed out of the class.

* * *

Ruby

"Thor!" She yelled with her laughter, "Put me down!" but didn't stop laughing. It was funny to remember how strong he was, or maybe how smaller she was, how he just carried her on his shoulder. But he laughed and obliged her and with a shrug managed to launch her a few feet into the air caught and put her down.

Her stomach was fluttering and while she blushed, this all felt good, it felt right.

Next was history, not exactly a riveting class, but her mood was so good right now she thought she could tolerate it. She'd been nervous after the whole, incident from Saturday, but Thor had been kind and even seemed to think it was funny. Still embarrassed, but glad it hadn't damaged their relationship she'd been in a good mood.

Still, she was unsure if they were…anything. Friends for sure, but she'd told him she liked him, and he'd even kissed her. But they hadn't discussed what that meant.

This was her first ever crush so she didn't know how this was supposed to go, she felt like there was way too much time between the reveal and any sort of definitive idea of what this meant. But that wasn't all that bad at the end of the day honestly. It may not have been what she really wanted, but at least it kept potential rejection away.

Thor was just…so great. He was so strong, his match with Pyrrha was amazing. She hadn't seen either of them be pushed until now. And Thor had such a cool semblance, lighting and wind. His last move, where he'd tried to stomp on Pyrrha was so cool. Not that she wanted to see her hurt, but it was cool to see the quick transition Thor made from using his semblance in his weapon to with his body. That was a skill not all semblances lend themselves to and they were always a joy to see in action.

And he looked like a hero, his height and build, how he carried himself, his good looks, even how he spoke had a slight air of an ancient hero.

There had never been anyone she'd felt this with before. It was an alien, but pleasant feeling. She remembered being worried about coming to Beacon with no friends, now she had a good number of them, and maybe something more with one.

* * *

That night

Thor

Jaune deflected another blow and actually made Thor step back as he countered, but Thor bated it away and stepped on Jaune's foot hard, stopping his movement for a moment and shoulder checked him, sending him to the ground.

Jaune landed with an "umph!" and took a second to regain his composure. Sitting up, he had a scowl on his face "That wasn't fair!"

"It's a fight Jaune." He said, walking over and helping him up "Fair doesn't apply."

"Still." Jaune mumbled.

"You've grown quickly Jaune, no shame in losing to a better more experience fighter."

"Which is everyone right now."

Thor laughed "Indeed, but you'll not shame yourself in combat class or missions now, and who knows, you may even catch up to out classmates sooner than you think." Thor said, but something scratched at the back of his mind. Jaune needed to unlock his semblance if he was to truly be competitive. Without one, he'd always be behind. The problem Thor was seeing with this was, everyone unlocked there's in different ways and at different points in training. Some, like himself and Ruby and Pyrrha from what she'd told him, they come soon and naturally. Other's, like Yang and Blake, trained them up. Wiess was unique in her knew what here's would be. But Ren and Nora for example unlocked them in moments of stress or panic. And for some people they came all at once, other's they came in small pieces and in small growth.

This was an area he couldn't help Jaune, only push him to keep improving. Still with just that, he'd done well in a short period of time. Jaune has aura, and fairly decent physicality, what he really needed, and what Thor had focused on was mental training and technique refinement. The other aspects would improve as well, but Jaune tendency to panic and rush in head first had been his weakest areas'.

Jaune sat on the ledge and took a drink from his water bottle and just sat looking pensive.

Thor didn't bother him, just rehydrated himself.

"So." Jaune said "What's going on with you and Ruby?"

Thor was mildly taken aback by the question. Jaune didn't typically ask these types of personal question. "Why?"

"Nothing…" Jaune said "Just, you two seem closer lately, I've seen her…kiss you."

"On the cheek Jaune, on the cheek." Thor assured him.

"Still, she was so shy at the beginning the year." He said "Unsure of herself. What did you do?"

"Jaune." Thor said, "What is this about?" Jaune didn't answer but took a drink of water. "Jaune?" Thor said again.

"Well it's just…" He said, "There's this girl I like…a lot." He said. "But she's…cold and distant, even though I've tried everything." He looked Thor in the eye "Hoe did you get Ruby open up?"

Thor smiled at this, he knew who he was talking about. "I was true to myself." He said, "I didn't in fact do anything, other than have fun and be myself around her." He looked around and at the sky before looking at Jaune again "Don't try to be someone you're not."

"Huh?"

Thor smiled "Be sincere, don't do what you think she'd want, just come to her as you."

"But what if she say's no?"

"Then she say's no." Thor said "If she doesn't like you for your true self, then why pursue her? Find someone who likes you for you."

"You sound like my mom." Jaunes said.

"Well, it's true." Thor smirked as he said it. "Why try to be someone that doesn't like who you are? That is a path to misery."

"Yeah." Jaune said "I guess, still…I can't help these feelings."

"Love is the one universal equalizer." Thor said, "Even the greatest of beings is helpless before."

Jaune was quiet for a moment. Looking a Thor with a confounded look, and after a minute or two he said, "That was pretty deep, did you just come up with that?"

"No." Thor said smiling "My father said it."

"Ahh, I guess he was pretty smart guy." Jaune said standing up and stretching "But I think I'm done for the night, I'm heading to bed."

Thor nodded and started packing up "Well goodnight then, I'll see you tomorrow."

* * *

Jaune

Jaune was feeling good, great even, after the training. He normally did, even if was beaten up pretty bad. His endorphins were up for sure, but the idea he was working to improve himself made him just feel better about himself.

But tonight, while he had the usual high, something was bothering him. Not exactly upsetting him, but more a feeling of something being off. He wasn't sure what, but he felt like it was something Thor had said.

He thought it might have been his advice on being with someone who liked the real him. That felt wrong somehow. Close, but not quite right. He'd has this sort of thing happen before and knew once he got it right it would hit him like a ton of bricks.

Still he wasn't sure. He changed for bed and climbed into his bed for the night but couldn't fall asleep. This thought was like worm niggling at his brain and he couldn't let it go. What was he put off about?

He went over the night in his head, and then it hit him like he knew it would eventually.

"My Father said it." Thor had said. But Thor had grown up in an orphanage, from what he'd told them.

That of course didn't mean he didn't know his parents, depending on when he'd been taken in at the orphanage, but still that was it. Thor had, through simple carelessness, reveled the tiniest bit about his past.

It didn't seem like it should be that big of a deal, but Jaune had a feeling it was important in some way.

* * *

 **AN: Okay, so here I'd like to make the request again. Feedback is much appreciated and if at all possible, a compare and contrast to what you like and don't like between this version and the previous.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: So this was was supposed to be out last week, but I lost a good chunk of the chapter, but I think it's for the best, because I prefer this version.**

 **So something I want to address and make clear. I am changing a lot of thing's here in this re-write. But some things will have to stay the same, because I'm writing another story in this line, and things were set up in the original that pay off in that story. So I'm trying to make it so that story can be read if you read either this one or original. I won't say what, becasue I think that will spoil it.**

 **Also, I know the story have been slow on action aside from the sparing matches. I wanted to set up character interactions and relationships before I took a crack at that again, but the time is coming for there to be more action, not this chapter, but the next, and you'll probably see what that is when you finish this chapter.**

 **Also, thanks to everyone who faved, followed or reviewed. It means a lot, and I truly appreciate it. But, I will say, I won't divulge plot points, so if someone asked about something, I won't answer in order to keep the surprise, so if you ask a question and I don't answer, I'm not shutting you out, I just don't trust myself to answer them without giving away information I want to keep secret.**

 **So, as always, please leave a review and tell me what you think. Anyway, onto the story.**

* * *

Thor

* * *

For the first time in some time Thor felt content. He was more emotionally fulfilled than he'd been in some time and he thought Ruby had more than something to do with this. She woke something up in him, a fire he'd let smolder rather than burn. Why he didn't exactly know. But he saw she had a similar effect on other's, although maybe in different ways.

This was something he'd learned to pick up on, when a person had their fire in their stomach lite. There was a change in a person who had new motivation and purpose in their goal. He'd seen it in Jaune, Pyrrha and Weiss. Jaune he suspected he knew why, but the two girls he was less sure.

Still he felt there was something waking up not just in him, but around him. He could feel it in other's as well, whom didn't know as well, but there was a firing rising.

The tournament was a cause he was sure, but there was more. He could feel it in the air, something was coming, and he didn't know what it was. But anyone with a warrior's instinct was feeling it, and that was most the students.

Still, he had other matters to think of. He was near as ready for anything he could ever be, in this body and with his power. Still he wasn't at the level he should be, or rather wanted to be. He was strong for his age, and well developed. But if he was compared to a professional, he was behind. He and Pyrrha we're close in combat. And he knew she was prodigy, but still, he should have been able to handle her easily, but he simply couldn't. He was certain he'd have won…eventually. Still, that she was only seventeen or eighteen, yet pushed him to use his semblance when he never had need to use it, that was something.

Her semblance deflected his lighting, he could only think of few abilities like that, and he'd faced one before and he was sure from her other displayed skills, she had some kind of magnetism semblance. How she slipped his strikes, he felt like she was leading his maul away, but not enough to notice, at least for others. He noticed however, and when she made the lighting arc away, he was sure.

But that aside, he'd yet to face someone who pushed him. Some like Wiess had been fair, but lacking in certain areas, and others like Cardin was so focused on one area that he left all others to waste and were easy to deal with.

Still there were other thing's going on other than combat classes. Standard classes were more of a challenge for him, he wasn't dumb, but he had little interest in them. They seem so…inconsequential compared to what he'd dealt with.

Still, other things, like his social life seemed more important than they had in a long time, sense he was a teenager.

He and Ruby had…bonded in way he hadn't with other students. She liked him, and he her. But what they were wasn't clear. She was still to shy to out right ask him, although she seemed to think of him as her boyfriend as much as she could.

For his part, any lack of confirmation lay in his uncertainty of what he truly felt. His teenager mind conflicted with his ancient soul. He wasn't exactly sure what feeling were what. He was certain he liked her, but he wasn't sure it was romantically. He may or may not, he felt like his brain was giving him different signals.

But he liked Ruby…a lot. She was immature in a lot of ways, but at the same time could be wise beyond her years. There was love there for her, but which kind he didn't know.

He felt physical attraction many other's in his class. Young woman who seemed to develop much too early.

One of the girls was also watching him like a hawk. Yang, Ruby's older sister. While she'd seem okay with and even pushing her sister to hang out with him, now the long after the initial "date" she seemed more stand offish. She'd talked about having a "talk" with him, and he'd asked Ruby why she meant by this.

Ruby told him she may want to talk to him about making sure she didn't do anything to hurt her. Yang was oddly supportive of her sister in many things, but fiercely protective at the same time.

* * *

Yang

Yang felt a little guilty over her behavior. She'd been the one to pushed, and a little bit tricked, Ruby into hanging out with Thor, and at first, she thought it was great, and really cute how he teased her. And more than anything she thought Ruby laughing and blushing at it rather than have break down and trying to fight Thor, showed two things. Ruby was coming out of her social shell and that she had, of course, been right that she liked Thor.

But now she had some fears mixed in with this. She supposed or knew it was just her protective instincts, but still that did nothing to keep the feelings at bay. Thor seemed great, key word being "seemed". She knew some guys put on acts to get girls into bed.

Granted this was long time to do that if that's what Thor wanted. Still, she just couldn't shake the thought once it was in her head.

If she could get to know him better, she might get a better idea. She'd voiced the idea to her sister, and while Ruby wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea, she didn't openly oppose it.

She knew Ruby could handle herself, but that didn't seem to matter, especially in an area like this, where her experience was virtually nonexistent. In an outright fight she was fine, but while she was becoming more social, she was still inexperienced.

This weekend would be the time, it was a long weekend with no class on Friday. The school's computer and security systems were getting a system update. Computers would be down, and the doors and alarms would be tested, making it to disruptive to bother trying to teach anyone anything.

She'd get Thor out there and maybe get a few drinks in him, he seemed to like it, given he used it as a means to warm up over anything else. And she might glimpse a bit of the true him, and it might be him like he was now, only louder.

* * *

Thor

That Friday came, and Thor felt, not fear exactly, but more annoyance. He was only doing thing to keep peace. Yang was stubborn and hotblooded, and he didn't care to have her on his case or sniping at him if she was mad at him. Or getting into a fight with him outside of combat training. He had a clean record at Beacon so far, but his academic history was littered with more than few fights, and he didn't need that trouble.

So, he'd indulge her. He liked Yang, but she was starting to take the protective big sister thing a bit to far. Hopefully this might make her calm down. It was ridiculous really, he and Ruby weren't even dating, not really. Although the rumor mill made it seem like they were, and honestly, they were only a little off.

He headed to the docks to meet Yang, and for Ruby to see them off.

Ruby looked nervous, Yang mischievous.

"Thor." Ruby said, "Don't let Yang intimidate you."

Thor cocked and eyebrow and smiled "As if she could." He said smiling.

"Oh, we'll see about that." Yang said with a smirk. "Come on let's go."

With that Thor gave Ruby and hug and boarded the Bullhead.

* * *

Yang

"Okay, so I've us a hotel room for tonight so we don't have to worry about getting back. We can have…as much fun as we want."

"Oh." Thor said, "I thought this was a one-day thing."

"We'll head back tomorrow." She said with a smirk "But tonight, we're going to." She finished by pantomiming taking a drink.

Thor smirked at this "Is that a challenge?"

That wasn't at all what she'd intended to convey, but that sparked her competitive spirit. "Sure, tonight, in the hotel bar. But first I want to see what you did with my sister." Thor didn't answer, just give her a look. "The store, the museum, well maybe not the expo, I don't think they're doing one this week."

Now she knew that there were two things to look out for while they did these activities. One was if he was noticeably different from what she'd heard from both Ruby and Thor on how the day went. Two, if it was exactly the same. If it was the same down to the detail, that was probably an act.

Not a perfect plan, but all she could manage without spying on him, which wasn't something she was at all good at. Blake could probably do it, but she doubted she could convince her partner to go along with it, and didn't want to ask anyway, it wouldn't be fair.

But he seemed…normal, but Thor standards anyway. He ate like normal, showed the level of interest she'd have expected in the museum and shopping. He seemed, well normal.

Truth be told, she hadn't expected much from this section of the day, maybe something little, but not much. It was the night she thought she'd find something to find, if there was anything. It was just that day drinking seemed so…lame.

But so far, he seemed to be just what he showed himself as. At this point she felt like she was looking for things to find wrong with him. Which wasn't fun, being that suspicious.

But still, as the day wore on, she didn't see anything. But he could be hiding it of course, he wasn't stupid. And she had more or less announced her plan to do this a good week before they even did it.

Not one of her brighter moves. Still, she also felt this was totally insane to even try and do it. She recognized that she was projecting her own insecurities about being hurt by people close to her onto her sister and Thor. The combined with her protective nature over Ruby, made this whole insane plan a reality.

There was more to it than that though, she could feel it, she just wasn't sure what it was. Just some vague feeling she couldn't put her finger on.

Looking at her scroll, she smiled that the day was almost over. Time to head back to the hotel.

"Thor time go see who's the bigger man!"

* * *

Thor

They sat at the bar of the hotel, hashing out the rules for the contest. They'd settled on matching drink for drink and alternating between choice. Each would choose the drink of the round and both had to get one. This was decided because Thor preferred beer, Yang liked mixed drinks. This kept thing fair.

They flipped a coin for who got to choose the first round, and Yang won, and ordered two Strawberry Sunrises.

Thor didn't hate flavored drinks, and they tended to be stronger than normal beer. But he liked beer and mead, and mead was a rare find here.

"Bottoms up." He said as the drinks arrived and He knocked it back in one go. It made his stomach feel weird, with it'd syrups and flavors. That was what he didn't like about these types' drinks, they were supposed to sipped at, not drunk like a beer.

The look on Yang's face told him she just realized the same. She probably had never tried to down said drink that fast before.

Thor got the next round, this time, two pints of beer. Again, he downed it, but Yang also took it in one go. The look on her face told him she didn't care for the taste of beer, but could clearly handle it better than the mixed drinks sweetness.

Following this, beer was the main stay choice for both. Although each decided to throw a few shot's in here and there to keep the other guessing.

To Thor it seemed it had been and hour, maybe and hour and a half. But once he glanced up at the clock, he noticed they'd been at this for hours. And by his tally, he and Yang had drunk…way too much. He was feeling dizzy in his seat, and he didn't want to imagine how it would feel when he stood up.

Yang looked flushed and was leaning on the bar. "You ready to give up big guy." She said smiling, but Thor could tell the drink was having a strong effect on her. Granted they had both taken in much more than he would have expected two human teens being able to drink. He supposed aura had something to do with it.

"I think we should just finish this, one last drink, who ever drinks it fastest wins." Thor said.

"Oh, wimping out…but fine." She said, it was clear she was trying to save face, but he could tell she was done with this. "What drink…is it your turn or mine?"

"Yours." Thor said, but it wasn't, it was his turn, but he'd let her have what ever advantage she thought she could have.

She settled on boiler makers, and again Thor downed it before her, like he knew he could.

"Yeah…well, I can beat you in a marathon." Yang said as she stood up. "I'm ready for bed." She stumbled, and Thor grabbed her to steady her, but once he stood up, she had to grab him to keep him from falling.

This made them both laughs.

They walked out of the bar, laughing and supporting each other. One they got into the hall though Thor became quieter and started to humming a pub song he'd heard long ago, he wasn't sure were.

* * *

Yang

Thor started off humming, but eventually started singing lyrics to some song she'd never heard. The song seemed…sad.

The room, as she unlocked it for the first time, wasn't big or lavish, but had a bed…one bed. She hadn't thought of that, and frankly it didn't seem important right now. But she had a ghost of a feeling it might be once she sobered up.

She Thor sing "For all I've done, for want of wit." He stumbled and muttered some more lines.

"I'm going to take a shower quick." Yang said, feeling a bit a dirty after tromping around the city.

Thor didn't respond, but kicked off his boots, and flopped down on the bed.

Going into the bathroom, she stripped down and got in the shower. She didn't take long, this wasn't her normal morning routine, just a way to rinse herself off. Still, she took longer than what she probably thought was average.

But it did sober her up. Well not really, she knew this sort of thing didn't make a person sober, just gave them a bit more alertness, she was that special kind of drunk where she knew she was drunk and aware of how impaired her actions were, but still not care.

Wrapping a towel around herself, and her hair she stepped out and heard Thor still drunkenly warbling his song.

"Oh all the comrades that e'er I've had, Are sorry for my going away, And all the sweethearts that e'er I've had. Would wish me one more day to stay, But since it falls unto my lot, That I should rise and you should not, I'll gently rise and I'll softly call, Good night and joy be with you all."

"Who are these 'sweethearts' you've had?" She asked in playful tone but thought she might have something here.

Thor smiled "Just a song, don't worry about it."

She didn't push it, she felt like she could trust him now, although the little clarity she had made her think is a vague way that was due to the drink.

"So fill to me the parting glass." Thor sang.

He actually had a nice voice, despite being drunk. It was now that she realized he stripped down to his boxers on the bed. His skin was slick with sweat. A result of the drinking, it made you feel hot. That was part of the reason she took a shower.

But damn, he had one hell of a body. He was one hell of a male specimen, and he was good looking, strong, and funny in his way. She understood why Ruby liked him, hell almost any girl would, but beside that, all the information she had on him, both first and second hand, he was a good guy. Something rare, especially in the are of people who were as naturally talented as him, at least at his age.

She climbed into bed next to him, he hardly seemed to notice he just muttered "Goodnight and joy be to you all."

She could smell him now, and something about him…just.

"So, what is that song?" She said, distracting herself.

"The Parting Glass, it's a pub closing song I don't remember where I heard it." He said, his eye's closed.

Yang could almost feel herself getting drunker as she lay there, realizing the last drink she had was partly hard liquor, she thought that made sense. But she placed and arm over Thor's chest as he hummed.

And he stopped, opened and eye and looked at her. She pulled herself next to him, he felt so warm, through her towel, which she just realized was all she had on, and frankly didn't care.

"Thor…" She said "You are one…" she didn't know what, but she saw what her sister saw in her drunken haze and pulled herself on top on him and kissed him.

* * *

Thor

He felt himself waking up from a haze, but in warmth. He felt a warm body next to him in his arms and pulled it closer and felt hair in his face. He smelt a pleasant sent of strawberry and lilacs. He smiled and drifted off again.

He woke again and reached for the warmth but felt cold sheets. Finally, he opened his eyes, the curtains were drawn in the room he didn't know. It took him a moment to remember where he was. Sitting up he tried to remember the details of the night before, rubbing his head.

He then spotted Yang, sitting in a chair, her face in her hands.

Then it all came back. The drinking, the night.

"Yang." He started.

"Shut up, this is your fault!" The venom in her voice could be felt, but that didn't affect him as much as her eye's, which were red. Not from her semblance but from her tears.

He wanted to be mad but couldn't. He knew it was his gault, partially at least, but he knew they were both drinking heavily, and she had initiated the incident. Still, he couldn't help but feel for her, because he felt bad, terrible even over the previous night.

"Yang." He stood up and walked over to her, but she stood up and walked away.

"I can't believe I did that to Ruby." He sobbed.

"You didn't do anything." He said, "The skein of life if woven at birth, what will be, will be."

"Don't give me that destiny crap?" She yelled "I've…betrayed my sister and done to her what I thought you might do." She laughed in an angry tone "I guess I was right about you then."

Thor felt his sympathy fade into anger. "I didn't start this." He said, "I'll take responsibility for my part, but it isn't all my fault."

Yang dropped onto the bed, and that was when Thor realized she was just wearing a bed sheet around herself.

Thor sat next to her and placed and arm around her shoulder. He pulled her close, wanting to share her grief, and hoping she'd share his.

Ruby was such a pure soul. And he felt like he would taint her, especially after this. But overall as well, he'd ruin her somehow.

She was pure and good, he was not. He was tainted and filled with regret. He liked Ruby, maybe even loved her, but he knew, now more than ever, he'd hurt her. He already had, even if she didn't know it.

But he and Yang. He felt they were not good for each other either, they were both hot blooded and quick tempered. A friend, sure, but he felt any attempt at a relationship would result in a rather stormy affair.

"We need to talk about Ruby." Thor said, rubbing her back "I don't think it would be wise for me to…well allow things to continue on as they have been."

Yang looked at him, and the mix of emotions on her face told him all he needed to know about her confused state.

"Thor, she's totally enamored with you, you're her first crush, you can't hurt her like that."

"I already have, even if she doesn't know it yet. She's…" He paused for a moment to think of how to word his thoughts "innocent and good, I am not. I feel like, I wouldn't be good for her."

Yang just stared at him "Thor…I get not being innocent, but, what do you mean you aren't good?"

"I don't mean I'm evil, but…" He didn't know how to word this part either, partially because he didn't know what he meant by it either. But he was here, so he'd screwed up again, even if he didn't remember what he'd done.

"Thor, you're good, you…we might have screwed up, but that doesn't make you…not good it just makes you human."

He smiled at that. "Will we tell her?" was all he said, this was going to be her choice. It would impact her sister and team, the potential fallout was going to affect her much more.

"IF you're going to not pursue anything with Ruby…" She said, rubbing the back of her neck "Maybe we don't have to, she's going to feel bad enough, and I don't want her to think I made you…I didn't did I?"

"No." He said, "I'd have come to this realization sooner or later."

"You know we aren't going anywhere else with this right, I mean, I like you, just not like that…I mean, like in a relationship. I don't think we'd be making good decisions, if last night was any indication."

He didn't say anything just nodded, he'd come to same conclusion already. "So I'll have to talk to Ruby about us. It will be odd to break up with someone I'm not even really dating."

"Just…let her down easy." Just then Yang scroll started to buzz on the nightstand. Walking over to it, she picked it up and answered. "Yeah Ruby."

Thor listened to Yang talk on the phone with her sister and felt guilt over the upcoming unpleasantness.

Their remaining time in the city, they got something to eat, and then headed back. They didn't talk, and hardly looked at each other.

The thing of it was, the actual night had been…as far as Thor was concerned, excellent. Which made the whole thing more complicated.

Disembarking off the Bullhead, Thor was blindsided by a red blur that knocked him onto the ground.

"You guys are back! Did you pass!" Ruby's voice rang in his ear, and his heart sank. He wanted to put this off, but he knew from experience that sort of thing never helped.

"Ruby, we need to talk."

* * *

Ruby

She did not like those words, and she looked at Yang, and she seemed upset about something.

"Come on." Thor said, "We'll talk in private." He said leading her away.

This was not good, and what it would be, she didn't know and didn't think she wanted to.

"Thor…is everything okay?"

"Yes…and no. Here will be fine." Thor said, stopping on a secluded part of the school campus. "Ruby, I've come to realize…I'm…" He started "You're a very sweet girl, and good. To good for me…I think."

"Thor." She cut him off "What ever it is…we can work it out…I can…." She didn't know. But her heart was racing and her stomach was sinking.

"It's not about fixing, it's about me. I'm…not good for you. It's not fair to you to be with someone like me."

"Like you!" Her voice was getting higher and cracking "You mean strong, and brave and kind and…. and." she sputtered.

He placed his hand on her shoulder "You haven't seen me at my worst, I can be terrible at my worst. You are to kind and good for that…."

Ruby felt like there was more he wasn't saying, but she was now in full panic.

"So, I'm not perfect either!"

"Ruby…I don't like this but trust me…it's for the best. You are better off finding someone more like you." He leaned down and kissed her forehead "I'll be moving out of the dorm, Ozpin can put me somewhere else, it's not fair for me to…"

But Ruby didn't let him finish, she shoved him away and used her semblance to take off to the bullheads and board one and was off to the city.

* * *

Yang

Yang saw the blur of her sister head to the bullheads. She didn't go after her, to let her be alone. First heartbreak, that was rough. She'd leave her alone for now, and honestly it wasn't just for Ruby, but herself.

Thor came back, scanning the area. "She's gone." Yang said, "Into the city."

Thor sighed "She didn't take it well."

"Did you expect her to?"

"No." He said with another sigh. "I need to talk to the Headmaster about a room change."

Yang understood that, but she felt an odd sense of loss at the idea, she'd gotten used to him being around.

"Ruby will get over it, she's resilient like that. She's upset, but she recover's quicker than most." Yang said, at least in part to ease her own guilt.

* * *

Yang was getting worried. It was Sunday and Ruby still wasn't back. And she wasn't answered her scroll. She'd reported it to the teachers.

But she was worried, Ruby never went dark like this. She wanted to blame Thor, but it just wasn't fair to.

Then her scroll hummed, and Ruby's name came up on the caller ID.

"Ruby! Thank god, you had me worried." She said, but the voice that came over the scroll wasn't Ruby's, it was a man's, one she didn't know.

"Hey there girly." He said, in smug, oily voice "I'm a friend of your sisters, we had a run a couple months ago and she cost me some money."

"Where is my sister!" She yelled into the scroll.

"You'' find out, if you done exactly what I say." The man said. "Just be a good girl and listen to Uncle Torchwick."

* * *

 **AN: So I'm trying to diverge more off canon here, and you can probably see where the action I mentioned will come from. Well please leave a review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Okay, next chapter.**

 **I'd like to thank all the people who bothered to review my works. They all mean a lot to me, that people bother to take the time to give me feed back. Follows and Fav's are good, but there is just something more personal about leaving a review that make's me want to write more.**

 **brave kid: Thanks for the reviews and the PM's and offering help. It's nice to have someone so invested.**

 **Dagart: Thanks for the review back in chapter 1. A late response, but the simple explanation for the earlier chapters was Thor's outgoing nature made Ruby uncomfortable, who was more comfortable with the introverted Blake, still thanks for the review, hope your still around to read this.**

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 **So thanks everyone, and pleas keep the feed back coming.**

* * *

Ozpin

* * *

He's expected something like this to happen sooner or later with this batch of first years. He wouldn't of bet on Ms. Rose being the one to get into trouble, at least over her older sister, Ms. Belladonna or Mr. Odinson, who all seemed more likely either to cause trouble or have trouble find them, but still, he should have been surprised given how he'd meet her.

Ms. Xiao Long had come as soon as she'd been called, despite being told not to tell anyone, which showed a leveled headedness he hadn't expected out of her. He already been told Ms. Rose was MIA, but now things were far more serious.

He was handling things, but he knew that team RWBY would be out looking for their leader soon, and Mr. Odinson probably would be along as well, and there was a decent chance of JNPR tagging along. He would forbid them to do so, if he thought that would so any good, short of locking them up, he wasn't going to stop them.

That aside, he thought they were up to the task. They all were well above the level of skill he'd expect from first year Beacon students. He'd resigned himself to thinking of this as training operation, as cold as that sounded.

But he wondered what Torchwick was really planning. Kidnapping wasn't his usual MO, and what could he gain out of it? Ruby's family wasn't rich, so money and dust weren't likely. What he feared was this was revenge for the embarrassment of a fifteen year old girl mopping the floor with his gang.

If that was the case, the situation was far more dangerous than a simple extortion kidnapping. He just hoped he hadn't done anything to her.

* * *

Yang

She was sick with grief and anger. She'd already snapped and Blake and Wiess, and if she'd had the chance to see Thor she thought she might hit him.

It wasn't anyone's fault, but her sister was being held captive by one of the biggest criminals in the nation. He's told her not to tell anyone, a piece of advice she ignored to tell the headmaster. But she hadn't told him everything.

Torchwick wanted Wiess to get her "daddy" to send money and dust to location he'd reveal later. This didn't make much sense to Yang, even if Ruby wasn't Wiess's partner, it seemed unlikely that this sort of thing would work.

Blake had voiced and opinion on this, which she thought might explain it. Torchwick didn't expect this request to be granted. This wasn't about money, the sick bastard was toying with them, giving the an unrealistic, but not impossible goal to get Ruby back.

Wiess had agreed with this thought line. If he could get the money and dust, he'd take it, but he was more concerned with making them suffer. Ruby had humiliated him and he was out for revenge.

That was way worse if that was true. She couldn't take it anymore, she was going to look for her sister. Blake and Wiess…she knew they'd come, because as cold as they could act, they cared.

They'd head out tonight, go to the city, and wouldn't come back till they found her.

She considered asking Team JNPR to help, more people would be better, but she didn't want them to get in trouble with them. She knew this sort of vigilante crap didn't fly with The Council or the police and officially the academy's frowned on it. But she didn't care, it was her sister.

Thor…she knew he'd be out there, if he went with them or not. Aside from feeling guilty over being behind the inciting incident for Ruby running off, he was still her friend, a really close one.

Thor…that…she didn't know how she felt about him honestly at this moment. She wanted to talk to him, and wanted to fight him. She wanted to blame him, but how could she? Teenage heart break was something that happened every day. Then there was the fact this wasn't random, Torchwick would of done this, or tried to do this at some point no matter what.

Still, if Thor hadn't upset her, she wouldn't of run off like she had.

* * *

Thor

Thor strapped his bracers in tight. He was going to head out that night, on the last Bullhead. Lifting his maul and placing it on the holster on his back he walked out of the locker room, tying his hair back into a ponytail to keep it out of his face.

This was in part his fault. He wasn't wholly responsible, but he had a part in the whole ordeal, and he intended to fix it. What was more, and he felt terrible for feeling this way, his blood ran hot at a real fight, not a sparing match, but real battle.

Torchwick was a well-known criminal element, and while he wasn't a trained huntsman, he was on a level of one, not in pure skill and power, but he made up for it with cunning, ruthlessness and a number of underhanded tactics. He was also well known for black market weapons.

He didn't know were to start looking, but he knew that if he went to a bad neighborhood, he'd find someone eventually who knew something, or someone who knew someone. These sort of things work themselves through the grape vice.

As he walked to the landing pad, he spotted three very familiar faces.

* * *

Blake

Thor walked up to them, and for once wasn't wearing his smile. It was almost disturbing to see him this serious. He walked up next to them and nodded but gave no other greeting as he stopped next to them to wait for the Bullhead.

Blake didn't want to be the one to ask for clarification on what he was doing here, although she was sure they all knew. But she wasn't as close to Thor as Ruby or Yang was and didn't feel like it was best coming from her.

But looking at Yang, there was a mix of emotions on her partner's face. It was such a storm of emotions that she couldn't quite place what she was feeling, and it occurred to her that it may not be best for Yang to handle it.

"So…Thor." She said "Are you…going to look for Ruby to?"

"Yes." He said.

"So what's your plan?" Wiess cut in, surprising Blake. Wiess, of the everyone on her team, interacted with Thor the least. She was cool to him, but not overtly rude.

"Probably the same as yours, find some criminals and 'extract' the information."

"So…you aren't going to help us then?" Blake asked.

"I'll be helping by doing it on my own." He said, "More chances of discovery." The Bullhead landed as he finished, and he boarded. "I'll call with anything I find out."

The rest of team RWBY boarded behind Thor, but picked up the hint's and sat away from him.

"He's different." Blake said, knowing it was obvious but was hoping to start a dialogue.

"He's mad and feels like it's his fault…and it kind of is." Yang said looking at the floor.

"What?!" Wiess said, her voice louder than normal. "What did he do to Ruby?" She hissed.

Blake was shocked to see this level of concern from Wiess. She knew she cared, but this level of emoting was jarring.

"He…" Yang began "Well, when we got back, I don't know why, but he told Ruby they weren't a good fit for each other."

"So he…broke up with her…sort of?" Blake said. But something told Yang wasn't being entirely truthful about what she just said, but what she wasn't certain, and didn't care much right now. "So, what happened after that?"

"Ruby ran off, I guess it's normal, her first crush…crushed her."

"Why didn't you tell us this when it happened?" Wiess asked.

"I guess I wanted Ruby to be the one to tell you guys, it's really her business, not mine." Yang said.

Again, that didn't feel true. The whole reason Yang was with Thor for those two days was because she couldn't leave Ruby's social life alone. She'd leave it alone for now, but Yang's story didn't feel entirely truthful.

Right now, her concern was finding Ruby and getting her back safely. Torchwick was the worst kind of person, and they all knew this more of a revenge plot than some sort ransom scenario.

She knew enough about people like this that this was probably a trap of some kind, because even though the rest of Team RWBY hadn't been involved with Ruby's run in with him, they were her friends, and the spite people like this could feel would extend to those around them.

Still, the idea of sitting and waiting didn't sit well with any of them, especially Yang, for several reasons.

* * *

Jaune

As Jaune emptied his stomach into a trash can, Pyrrha rubbed his back.

"Jaune." Ren said "While appreciate the desire to find Ruby, I have to ask do you have a plan?"

"Sort of." He said wiping his hand across his mouth, then sucking on his tongue to spit and try and get the taste of vomit out of his mouth, he really hated flying. "Torchwick has her, so we find him we find her, and to find him, well he's been hitting dust shops all over the city, and there are only a few he hasn't hit yet so…"

"We follow the dust." Nora chirped in.

"Yeah, more or less." Jaune said.

"Still, we have no way of knowing which shop he'll hit, or if it will be tonight." Ren added.

"That is true Jaune." Pyrrha added, looking a little guilty over contradicting his plan.

"True, but I think I have a reasonable guess." Jaune added "There are only handful of shop's left he hasn't hit."

"So which one then?" Pyrrha asked.

"None." Jaune said "The few that are left, are to small to bother with, especially given how much more of police presence is in the neighborhoods that have them. To much effort for to little pay off." Jaune said.

"Then…where?" Nora asked.

"Well, the police scanner have made it clear the police are out now in force, especially sense…Ruby…well almost all the police are around the dust shops, the docks or other wise searching for possible hide outs, that leaves…the police station." He said, he voice faltering, thinking it was a stupid idea.

"Jaune…do you really think he'd go after the police station?" Ren asked "It'd be a huge risk."

"Yeah, but the pay off from the armory and evidence locker would be way more than he could get from a dust shop now, and with police patrolling the docks…I just thought…never mind it was stupid." He said

"No, it's not…it's actually, very clever." Pyrrha said. "If he would try it, tonight would be one of the best chances he'd have. It would also explain why he kidnapped Ruby, a missing Beacon student would add extra strain ad already over taxed force." She smiled at him "But still, the chance of it happening tonight? Or even soon? They aren't very good."

"It doesn't have to happen tonight, tomorrow or even next week. If he's going after it at all, he's going to be sending people to scoop it out and learn routines, those are the people we'll be looking for."

"Well." Nora cut in "It's not the worst plan, and we don't have any better idea's, so let's go!"

"Gee, thanks Nora." Jaune added, a little dismayed at the comment, but oddly cheered up by it.

* * *

Thor

"I'm only going to ask this once." Thor said as he held the petty criminal by the color "What have you heard about Torchwick?"

"Nothing man, I just fence some stuff for one of his officers sometimes." He said while struggling.

Lightning sparked in Thor's hand "See, you lied to me, that's not 'nothing'." He held his fist up, electricity arcing off it.

"Okay, okay!" He shouted, "The guy, the lieutenant, I tell you where to find him."

"Good." Thor said smiling and dropping him before helping him up to feet and brushing him off, "that wasn't so hard."

"He's always gambling at this bar, the 'Drill bit', you can't miss him, he's got a scar that goes over the bridge of his nose, like ear to ear. He's a big guy to, bigger than you I think." He huffed.

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, missing his left hand, real high-end prosthetic replacement, I think it's gilded or something" The guy said "Look this guy is mean, if you really go after him, please don't tell him I told you?"

"Oh, don't worry about that." Thor said patting him on the head, and giving him a mild shock, and crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Thor checked his pulse, he was fine, just knocked out. The poor bum didn't deserve anything worse.

Pulling out his scroll, he typed in the name of the bar and found it's location.

* * *

Wiess

"Yang, I think this is counterproductive." Wiess said as Yang tore the bar apart. It was a seedy out of the way place, but Yang had been certain they could find information here.

The problem was, Yang's approach to information gathering was…more direct than what Wiess would have liked, and probably Blake as well. And while Yang was getting some information out of the bartender, this was going to draw attention to them.

Maybe that was Yang's idea, draw them out. But somehow, she didn't think Yang was capable of that level of tactical thinking in her current state. She wasn't dumb, but she was upset.

"All I know." The bartender practically pleaded "He's planning something tonight, people talk, but I can't be more specific than that." The poor fellow scream.

Yang punched him in the head knocking him out. "Let's go." She said.

"That seemed excessive." Wiess said.

"He'll be fine." Yang said, "I just don't want him running to tell anyone right away." With that she walked out of the bar.

"So now what?" Blake asked.

"Well, there is something happening tonight." Yang said.

"Which isn't all that helpful." Wiess said "The city is huge."

"Still… it's something." Blake said. "If we use a police scanner, we might be able to get somewhere."

"Oh, well then we're doing great, we might get 'somewhere'!" Wiess near shouted, venom dripping of her voice. She was upset, they didn't have much of a plan, and were stumbling around in the dark.

To make thing worse, Yang's particular approach was certain to make their presence know, taking any sort of advantage they had. Yang may prefer a direct fight, but the simple fact was they didn't have enough of advantage in other area's to make up for the lack of a surprise approach.

"Calm down Ice Queen." Yang said in a cool tone "This isn't my first rodeo, I've done this sort of thing before."

That…actually surprised Wiess. Yang hadn't mentioned it before, and made her feel…better.

* * *

Thor

The "Drill Bit" reeked of the criminal underworld. It looked far to nice for the neighborhood it was in, was far to extravagant. As he walked in he looked for the man described to him. He wasn't hard to spot, his scar and size made him easy to pick out.

The man was sitting in a corner with another man, who threw down a hand of cards and walked off, leaving a sizable pile of cash on the table. It looked like the end of a poker game, and the last plater had just busted out.

As the man counted his winnings Thor walked up to him and stared at him. The man was huge, Thor was tall, but this guy had to at least be a foot taller. He worse and expensive dress shirt and vest, except in lue of a tie he wore a scarf, and his dark black hair was slicked back fro his pale face. His fine clothing contrasting with his brutish appearance made his seem more threatening than he might of other wise.

"What do you want boy?" He said in a deep voice, looking up from his winnings to look Thor in the face, then his eye traveled to the maul on Thor's back. "A Huntsman, or…." He looked Thor over again " A huntsman in training." As he spoke pulled out a cigar, placed it in mouth and lite it with a match.

"My name is Thor Odinson." Thor said, sensing this was not a man he could easily intimidate. "I'm looking for someone."

The man laughed "Aren't we all…boy." He puffed his cigar "Do you know who I am?"

No, in truth Thor didn't, he didn't think to get a name, so he answered, "One of Torchwick's…lieutenants." He responded.

The man chuckled again "For now." He said "But I'm also the owner of this little establishment." He took the cigar out of his mouth and gestured around the bar "So if you came to arrest me, you might want to think about it."

Thor sat at the table "I'm not here to arrest anyone." He said "I want to know were your boss is tonight." And he was telling the truth, but he didn't say he wasn't here to fight, and he would if it came to it. Still, criminals were reliable group of people in an unreliable way. They could almost universally be counted on to undercut each other for their own interest.

"Oh, is that all?" The man said "And why are you looking for him?"

Thor answered at once "He has my friend."

"Ahh, so he was right." He said putting the cigar back in his mouth "He said her friends would come looking for her." He puffed again. "I'm supposed to send you to a trap if you come here, but I think it will be better for me if you and your friends catch the boss during his little heist tonight." Thor raised an eyebrow at this. He smiled at Thor "The boss is…getting involved in some risky business, and I think it might be time for him to…take a vacation."

Thor wasn't at all surprised but wasn't ready to believe this man on his word.

"Where will be tonight?"

"Evidence locker raid." The man said "He's stealing the cash and dust the police have confiscated, but he's also going to wipe the system, really screw with the police." He smiled at this "He's acting like he's going to fight a war, and war isn't good for business."

"You want use to…capture him?" Thor asked.

"Capture kill…discredit, it doesn't matter."

Thor stood up and looked at the man "I don't think I ever got your name?"

"And you won't." He said, "I don't give out my real name so easily."

"I don't trust you." Thor said.

"Of course, you don't." He smiled and tossed something to Thor, who caught it, looking at it, it was a back disk that looked like a speaker. "That will pick up the signals from Torchwick's private channel, for the next twenty-four hours, after that, it will be worthless."

Thor lifted the device to his ear and heard voice talking about fueling up the Bullheads. He kept listening and caught a small piece of a conversation mentioning Ruby being moved to 'Site B'. His heart raced a bit a this and the man smiled.

"Thank you." Thor said, pocketing the device.

"Just make sure 'The Boss' is treated right." He smiled one last time as Thor turned to leave.

He didn't trust the man, but he'd meet his type before. He wouldn't be content being subordinate for long, he'd reach for the top once he could, and if he could get his boss arrested…or killed, he could move up the rungs. Especially if he helped it along.

* * *

Jaune

The police station was unusually quiet, and Jaune knew why, most of the force was out in patrol. They'd posted up on building across the street and were all looking scanning the area for anyone suspicions.

"This isn't as exciting as I thought it would be." Nora sighed.

"We're not here for excitement." Ren said. "We're here for Ruby."

"Yeah, so are we." A familiar voice said from behind them, and Jaune nearly jumped ten feet in the air.

"Blake?" Pyrrha said as Jaune turned around to see Blake standing behind them. They had been completely caught unaware, and he felt a sudden and strong sense of guilt, they hadn't set a watch and as team leader that was up to him to make sure they did just that.

"Did Thor tell you guys to come here?" Blake asked.

"Thor? No." Pyrrha said "Jaune thought this might be a good place to start. Where is the rest of your team?"

"Coming, I came first to scoop things out." She said looking at them all "We heard you guys and didn't know who you were."

"So…" Jaune cut in "Thor is coming?" That made him feel better, along with the rest of Team RWBY, that made for a pretty formidable force when his team was counted in. Not him though, he was better than he was, but still not a tenth as good as any of them.

"So." Another familiar voice called, though this time Jaune didn't jump. This time it was Wiess "I see Thor didn't bother to tell us you were here as well." Jaune felt his heart flutter and sink at this comment. Was no one going to think they'd, or he, had taken the initiative and from the sounds of it, gotten a pretty good guess of the best place to go.

"Thor doesn't know we are here." Ren said, "This is a coincidence."

"Well…" Wiess began "We'll have to wait for him at any rate, he said something was going to happen here."

"Indeed." Thor's voice came from above as he landed on the roof. Jaune had seen him use this trick with his equipment before. It wasn't really flying, he couldn't keep it up for long without a system overload, but it let him soar short distances.

As he landed, Yang finally came to the roof and was the first address Thor. "So, your…informant said Torchwick is going to raid the police station."

Jaune couldn't help but feel proud of his guess, but part of him knew there was more than a bit of luck involved in him being right.

"So he show's up and be take him down!" Nora almost shouted.

"No." Thor said.

"What?" Yang cut in "We have to."

"If he show's up, and we attack him and capture him, Ruby will still be were ever he has her hidden." Thor said "We need to get back to his base, then we can find Ruby."

Jaune agreed with this, but was reluctant to voice it, hoping to hear some of the other's opinions. But no one did.

"Thor's right." He finally said. "If we want to find Ruby, we have to be smart about this."

* * *

Yang

Thor had, supposedly found out about a planned break-in of the police station. She wasn't sure how he'd gotten that information, but at least it matched with the time line she'd managed to beat out of the bartender.

Still, it seemed so unlikely he'd try to raid the police station. Even more so, she'd thought they might of done better to call the police, but Thor squashed that idea. If the police came running back, the raid wouldn't happen, and they couldn't follow the men back to the base. What was more, Thor was under the impression Torchwick had some men on the inside, and Thor didn't want them getting wind of therir mission.

Still, with no proper time frame, they could be waiting all night. Thor kept walking around on the roof putting, something to his ear.

"Thor, what are you doing?" She asked.

"Listening." Was all he said.

"Helpful." She responded.

Before she could ask him anything else, a series of explosions rang out from the direction of the police station. "No way." She muttered but felt a sense of joy that they seemed to be on the right path.

They all ran to the edge of the building and watched as Bullhead flew in at incredible speed to ground level while men ran out of the bombed out building with cases of what had to be dust and money.

"How did they do it so fast?"

"Had to of had people inside, bribed officers, people posing a civilian, maybe even a few men in the holding cells." Thor said as he scanned the site and suddenly pointed at a Bullhead that was almost full. "Go." He said and vaulted the side of building, before she could think, Yang was following him and could feel the other's just behind her.

She didn't know what Thor was planning, but she followed him, because he at least had a plan.

The Bullhead's cargo hold was almost full, but it was clear now what Thor had planned. Between the trips in an out of the station, there was small gap where no one could see the rear of ship. Thor ran up the ramp and vaulted on the cargo and climbed into one of the overheard cargo containers.

Yang copied him, and could hear a few of the other's doing so as well, and the rest ducking down behind the stacks of crates.

Watching through a crack on the compartment as Jaune just barely made it on and duck behind a stack of dust. Her heart almost stopped as she watched one of the henchmen stack what looked like a cache of weapons right next to him, but he was so busy he didn't notice Jaune and Yang breathed a sigh of relief.

She suddenly remembered Jaune's motion sickness. And her heart dropped, once this thing got to where ever it was going, they weren't going to be hiding anymore.

Well, they would cross that bridge when they came to it.

* * *

Ruby

Ruby couldn't see in the room she was in. She'd felt her way around the room over a dozen times now, and the only thing she knew for sure was there was a heavy steel door.

She didn't remember exactly how she'd ended up here, but she did remember walking down the street when the rain started, and she suddenly felt like she was being followed. She never saw who or what attacked her, but she woke up in this room. She'd been visited once by Torchwick.

He just made fun of her, told her how she never should have messed with him, and now, he was going to have his revenge.

This was all her fault. She'd made the mistake of running off, and had let her guard down over her…crush. Thor had let her down easily enough, but she still felt terrible over it, which was ridiculous given her situation, she had so many other things to worry about.

She wanted to cry, but kept her composure, why she didn't know. There was no one to see her cry, but she pushed it away. She felt, she supposed, in some vague way if she broke down then it was all over.

They would come for her, her team, her friends and her sister. But she didn't want them to. She didn't want to have them in danger because she could look after herself. She was determined to get out on her own, but Torchwick hadn't bothered to feed her and she felt weak. She felt like it had been days or weeks but wasn't at all sure that was right. She'd read somewhere that without a way to reliably tell time, like the sunrise or sunset, people could lose track of time easily.

She wanted out, to see everyone again. And she wanted to see the sky, the sun, the moon and stars. She wanted to be free.

* * *

Jaune

As the hatched opened and one of the thieves walked in, he knew he was caught. His pile of vomit would give him away.

But before anything happened, Thor dropped from his compartment, put the man in head lock, and the man's body jerked a bit, then dropped to the ground.

Jaune walked up "Is he…"

"He's stunned, hurry, we don't want to be caught in here when they find us."

Jaune didn't fail to notice Thor didn't say "If" but rather "when".

They all departed the Bullhead and followed Thor into, what Jaune could now see was some kind of warehouse. They ducked behind a large shipping container.

"Now what?" Jaune said in a whisper, frankly he couldn't believe they hadn't been spotted yet, there were eight of them and they didn't exactly all dress is subdued colors.

"We just have to…" Thor said and stopped speaking and his eye's went wide and suddenly shouted "Down!"

Before Jaune knew what was happening, Thor had shoved Jaune to he ground as something shot past him and into the shipping container. All he remembered after was a bright light and ear shattering blast.

* * *

Yang

Thanks' to Thor, Yang had managed to duck the blast of what she guessed was and RPG. As she rolled to her feet, she saw Thor and Pyrrha were on their feet, Nora getting up and Blake sitting up rubbing her head. Wiess, Ren and Jaune were still on the ground.

Looking up from where the shot came from, she saw Torchwick, smiling holding the launcher. He had four people with him she didn't recognize, but they seemed close in age to her and her friends. A silver hair boy, a dark skinned green hair girl, a young woman with black hair and vicious looking eyes, and one girl with pink and brown hair who had an expression of joy on her face.

"Look's like Red's little friends came to saver her." Torchwick said in such a smug voice that if she could have Yang would of hit him then. "But it's just to bad" Torchwick started but was cut off when a maul struck him dead center of the chest and carried him across the warehouse.

The once smug looking group companions looked shocked at the sudden and vicious attack and watched as there ring leader was carried away by the attack.

"ATTACK!" Thor shouted and jumped into the air, lighting trailing off his body and he landed among the four other member of Torchwicks ground and slammed his fist into the ground, lighting arcing off the point of impact with a thunderclap that nearly blew Yang's ear drum's out.

Yang didn't need to be told twice, and charged at the stunned group.

* * *

Torchwick

As the fog cleared in his head Torchwick couldn't honestly believe what had happened. He was used to people letting him get a few cutting words in, but more over, he was surprised any of them had enough of there wits about them after that blast to think to attack that quickly.

He looked down where the stupid kid had hit him, and there was a sizable scorch mark on his chest, and his chest ached.

Using his cane he got to his feet, and looked to see the kid in front of him. Stupid kid, it was a lucky shot, now, he was going to pay. He's planned on taking them all captive, and having some fun, but this one could die now.

"Nice try." He huffed, his breathing was more labored than it should have been, and he was starting to think the electricity of that attack might have done more damage than he thought. "But now, you're going to pay."

Rushing forward, he struck at the kid, only to have his attack batted away by the maul, and to receive a quick punch to the throat.

Gagging, he dropped he cane and clutched and his throat, trying to breath. The next thing he felt was hot pain across the bridge of his nose and bright flash, then he was looking at the ceiling of the warehouse.

"A weak man, surround by strong friends." The kid said.

* * *

Thor

Torchwick was on his back, totally stunned. He'd intentionally hit with disabling attacks to keep him awake, but unable to fight. If given the chance to compose himself, Torchwick was dirty and dangerous fighter, but Thor didn't intend to give him that choice.

He'd dealt with this sort of fight before…many times. End it quick before your opponent could use his tricks.

He rested his maul on Torchwick chest and allowed a small amount of electricity arc off it, sending a clear message.

"Where is Ruby?" He said in a much softer tone than even he expected to use.

"Red?" Torchwick said spitting out blood and what looked like a tooth but managing a smile. "Why should I tell you?"

"Because…if you don't, I'll stop your heart, here and now." Thor said in the same calm tone.

The smile on Torchwick's face faded, and Thor knew this man had seen the look Thor had in eye's before. Someone who was dead serious, and someone who had killed before.

"Look." He said "We can make a deal, right? Let me go, and I'll tell you where Red i…AHHH!" He screamed in pain before finishing. Thor had brought his maul down on one of his kneecaps, shattering it "You son of a bitch!" he shouted.

"Tell me." Thor said, still calm, but now electricity was arcing off his body.

"You little bastard!" Torchwick hissed, "You'll pay for…AHHH!" Again, he didn't finish as Thor crushed his other knee, now the screams mixed with whimpers of pain.

"Tell me."

"Okay! Please…just don't break anything else!" Torchwick screamed. "She's in a reinforced shipping container out back!"

"Thank you." Thor said, and with that, let a bolt of lighting into Torchwick's face rendering him unconscious.

That settled, Thor looked back to the others, and despite having an advantage in numbers, they were struggling.

Gripping his maul, he turned to help them.

* * *

Pyrrha

This girl was good, way to good. Pyrrha knew that her own skills were excellent, far above any other student except Thor's, but this girl was giving her a hard time. She was certain she could beat her given a enough time, but they didn't have time.

Thor had managed to hit all four in his initial attack, but that hadn't done much more than disorient them, and opening they all had failed to take advantage of.

These four were not street thugs or flunked out huntsman students, they were all far above the standard of even trained fighters of their age.

"Pyrrha Nikos." The girl said as she brushed her raven locks out of her face. "I've heard a lot about you, it will be wonderful to be the one to kill you."

Before Pyrrha could even think a response, the girl charged her. But before she could reach her, someone blindsided her, and knocked her to the ground before should be even reach her.

She didn't bother to look who'd come to help her, but dashed forward and struck. She didn't land a solid hit, it was a good strike none the less.

"You okay?" Jaune's voice panted from her left. It had been him who'd hit the girl from the side, and not to disparage her leader and friend, she'd thought he was down for the count. Had he been playing possum or had he just recovered?

"Oh how sweet!" The girl hissed "I'll just kill you both!"

Again to Pyrrha surprise, Jaune stepped forword, shield raised, and push all his force behind it to try and shove the girl again, but this time she vaulted over him to try and strike him from behind…and left herself open to Pyrrha.

This time she struck true, and felt her sword bit through her aura and into flesh.

* * *

Yang

Yang was trying, and failing, to land a hit on the smallest member of Torchwick's little group. She to nimble for her to hit and kept smirking and winking at her, and getting her temper to flare.

Blake was still on the ground, clutching her head, something was wrong with her, the explosion had affected her worse than anyone else other than Wiess who had been the closest to it, she and Wiess were the only ones still not up from it.

So she was on her own right now. Jaune and Pyrrha were handling on, and Ren and Nora were fighting one each.

The tiny girl however, was proving to much for Yang, if she could just get a good hit in and stun her, she could pummel her into oblivion.

Just and the girl came at her, Thor's maul flew right at her. She jumped it, but while she was in the air, Thor, seemingly to come out of nowhere, grabbed her ankle and started to slam her on the ground like a rag doll over and over again, with lighting arcing off her, it all ending when Thor threw her past Yang and into a shipping container.

Yang was a bit stunned by the sudden appearance of Thor, but broke out of it by Thor shouting "NOW!".

Looking at the girl, Yang saw she was still standing, disoriented, but still up. Rocketing forward, she slammed a fist into her stomach, knocking her back into the container so hard she bounced off it. Then she connected with her jaw, and smirked as she saw the stunned look on the face that had only mocked her.

* * *

Thor

The four companions of Torchwick eventually realized they were losing the fight, and scattered when two of them had been severely hurt.

Torchwick, what ever he was to them, had been left behind, and the swarms of lower level minions had long sense bugged out.

He expected that soon the police would be here soon, but he looked to his own group now. Wiess was still lying on the ground, and he noticed Jaune was at her side, waking her up.

But his eye's fell on Blake, who was on her knee's, head in hands, clutching them, almost shaking.

He walked over to her and gently place a hand on her shoulder "Blake." He whispered. She didn't respond. "Blake." He said again, and this time he noticed blood running through her fingers. "Are you hurt, let me see." He said trying to pull her hand away to examine her head, "You'll need to take the now off." He said as he did it, but suddenly she jerked away and look at him, wide eyed and scared.

He was confused, until he saw the bow twitching violently, and it different and random directions, and an idea formed in his head.

He spoke louder and slower, because now he was certain the sound of the blast and temporarily rendered Blake deaf. "We need to get you to a doctor."

She shook her head, fear in her eyes and Thor felt pity for her, and she looked ready to run. He pulled out a long s1rtip of bandage from the medial kit all Beacon students carried, and gestured with it, he mouth "We can hide it with this, and it will help the bleeding."

She looked for it to him and slowly came back, and allowed Thor to wrap her head in the white cloth, catching the blood, and also allowing Thor to remove the bow and cover her secret in the same time.

"Sit down." Thor said to her, helping her sit on the ground, with that take care of, he turned to everyone else. "Yang, Jaune, come with me."

"To where?" Jaune asked, who looked ready to collapse from the shock of the fight.

"To get Ruby." Thor said "I got the answers out of Torchwick."

"Then we should all come." Wiess muttered, still on the ground.

"No, we need the rest to stay with Blake and Wiess, besides." Thor said "We don't need a whole team for this, and someone will need to talk to the police when they arrive." He looked a Pyrrha as he said this last part "And I think your notability will help in that regard."

* * *

Ruby

Something had been happening outside, but she had no clue what, and she just sat in the room, waiting.

Then a sound of something tearing into metal tore her out of her own thoughts and despair.

The door, it was coming from the door, and soon light started to come through a break in the door. Then all at once it was gone, and mane of golden hair was rushing in.

"Ruby!"

"Yang!" She cried as she ran to embrace her sister. She could never remember being so happy to see her sister. She knew she'd come for her.

Looking over Yang's shoulder, she saw Jaune and Thor smiling at her. Suddenly, she didn't feel any hard feelings towards Thor. She felt like she missed him in an odd way, even though he was right here.

She felt an odd peace, despite everything, and that things would be okay.

* * *

Wiess

She looked at Torchwick as the paramedics carted him away. He looked mangled, Thor had done a number on him. He wasn't just beaten, he was pulverized. She knew Thor was strong, but to do that to someone as notorious as Torchwick was astounding.

As she sat in the back of ambulance, she thought to the fight. She'd been worthless, even Jaune had shown more aptitude than her in this scenario. Granted she'd been hit point blank the blast, but still, the fact that dunce could do as much as he did shock her.

But Blake had been incapacitated as badly as she had, and wasn't close to the blast, at least not as close as she was. That was concerning for a number of reasons.

Still, overall this whole ordeal had gone better than she would have ever expected it to. They were all alive, Ruby was back, and Torchwick was in police custody.

She'd have loved to say they were all just that talented, but she felt it was more dumb luck than anything else. For everyone involved…except Thor.

He just seemed to know how to react way to quickly, and his plans worked, and he'd demolished Torchwick in a one on one fight, granted he had hit him with a sneak attack, but still it was impressive.

It was unnatural, it almost scared her. No that wasn't right. It did scare her. She was trained for years by the best of the best and couldn't compare to that. Pyrrha had seemed close in there dual in class, but now she thought that match up wasn't as close at it had seemed.

How could someone be that strong? That good? He had instincts of a season Huntsman.

She didn't know what she was feeling about this, but it made her uncomfortable, very uncomfortable.

* * *

Blake

She'd run as soon as Thor was gone, she didn't need a paramedic looking at her closely. She knew what happened, her sensitive hearing had been blown out by the blast, and she'd been in shock. She was heading back to Beacon to sleep and think.

Thor knew her secret, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. She liked him, and he seemed trust worthy. Especially when he realized what she was, he had only acted with concern and helped her with the issue.

She was tired and wanted to sleep. But her mind wouldn't let her, thinking about what Thor knew. She hadn't told him it was a secret, but she hoped he was smart enough to pick up on this issue.

This whole situation just didn't seem to want to end, at least for her. Ruby was safe, but now she needed to talk to Thor as soon as she could get him alone.

* * *

Ozpin

These kids were something else. They'd saved their friend and captured a notorious criminal. Still, they had come close to a much deeper and sinister plot. They'd run into some of "her" subordinates and didn't even know it.

He was extremely impressed with Ms. Nikos and Mr. Arc's ability to hurt Cinder and make her retreat, with half of a Maiden's power, that was no small feat. Mr. Odinson was getting much more recognition, both in the school and in the media for his defeat of Torchwick, but the victory over Cinder was in fact the far more impressive feat.

Not that anyone involved in the actual fight knew that, they didn't know the significance of the whole incident. Truth be told, once he'd found out who had been with Torchwick he was surprised they had managed to win at all. But he supposed Cinder's inexperience with only half of the power had played a part, along with underestimating her opponent.

But after the interviewing everyone, he was surprised to hear how Mr. Odinson had taken the lead, and how he treated his teammates with such an…adult manner.

This contradicted strongly with his typical aloof and carefree attitude. He had friends and was social in school, but he never struck Ozpin as someone who'd take a leader position and look go out of his way to look after other's.

Potential, that was all he could think of with that boy. He was strong in a fight, one of the best he'd seen in years, but he had strong leadership qualities as well.

Ms. Nikos was another one like that. Two students of such caliber was unheard of, getting even one was a once in a life time chance, but two made him hopeful. The only difference in them was confidence, Thor was more confident in interpersonal matters than Pyrrha, which surprised him. He'd of thought they both might have issues socializing with more…common students, but that hadn't been the case. Pyrrha had done alright, but Thor was highly social and interested in making friends.

The only issue with this, which hadn't happened yet, but Thor's history indicated the possibility, was Thor was more likely to get into conflicts with his class mates. He was friendly but had such a strong sense of right and wrong, he may starts conflicts that could be avoided. Ozpin already had a vague feeling that there were a few students Thor might come to blows with.

Pyrrha was lower key in comparison, less social, but far more even tempered.

Maybe he could work something out to make them interact more, and maybe they would temper each other's short comings, and maybe bring out each other's full potential.

Perhaps Mr. Odinson was due for a room change.

* * *

 **AN: Please leave a review, and thanks for reading.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed this chapter.**

 **sacke110: Thank you for your review. That other work we discussed is in the works so hopefully I can get something done soon.**

 **Ultor: Thanks again, and maybe this chapter will give you some hope.**

 **hammerstorm: Thanks. That was the general idea behind the fic, seeing how a super experience but depowered Thor would function, and I'm glad someone else like's the idea.**

 **X3runner: hopefully this chapter helps answers this idea you presented.**

 **hirshja: Thanks, and I hope I don't take Yang to far in this other direction. I'm hoping to make her seem like a rea person who isn't dealing with her emotion in a healthy way, like many people do.**

 **cbustroyer: Everyone take note of this guy, this is what I really need. All reviews are appreciated, but this one made sure to point out mistakes I made, which is super helpful.**

 **bravekid: as always, appreciated my friend.**

 **MeteorElDrago: Thanks and honestly, I had forgotten the whole thing of Nora being inspired by Thor for this part, that was pure coincidence, but I like that it came out that way.**

 **On another note, still looking for a beta, if you know anyone who might be interested I'd appreciate any help in getting in contact. I'm a poor self-editor and would love to have Beta if possible.**

* * *

Ruby

Ruby had been forced to stay in the hospital after her incident with Torchwick. She didn't want to be here, but she understood it. She was dehydrated and otherwise beaten up.

Her dad had been in to see her, worried, and looking haggard. But overall happy to see her well.

Her team and JNPR had visited her as well. All the standard well-wishes and so on had been observed, but Yang and Wiess had seemed particularly odd.

But not Thor. She wanted to see him. After everything, she wanted to at least talk to him. To get something straight. He'd told her that he didn't think they were right for each other, but she hadn't taken much time think this before she ran off.

She really wanted to see him and get this all straight.

"Ruby?"

The voice was familiar but made her shiver with anxiety. "Thor?"

She looked at the door and saw the tall, strong object of her heart. And her heart skipped a beat.

"I.." He said, walking to her bed and taking a seat next to it, "I wasn't fair to you." He said and grabbed her hand.

"Thor." She started " I think…I might."

"Ruby." He cut her off "I'm… Sorry, for…everything." He said and pulled out a box. "I brought you these." He placed the box in her lap.

She looked from it to him and back to it. Smiling, she opened it up to see a stack of cookies, not homemade, but still, her heart fluttered at the gesture.

"Thanks, Thor, and I'm sorry if I hadn't run off like that… this whole mess wouldn't have happened."

"It was my fault…" Thor said, "If I had just…"

"You were honest." That hurt her to say, but she didn't want him blaming himself for this whole debacle.

He grabbed her hand and said, "Not entirely."

She looked him in the eye, his startling blue eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I was worried that I would…ruin you." He took a deep breath "But I'm seeing…that isn't fair to you, or giving you the credit you deserve. Thinking I'd have that much influence on you." He sighed, "I never should have said what I said."

"So…" she almost didn't want to hope " So are you…un-breaking up with me?"

He smiled, "Well if I recall, we never officially dated."

She punched him in the should "Well, let's make it official!"

He pulled her into a hug and kissed the side of her head "Of course."

* * *

Yang

Ruby would be back to class on Wednesday, so until then, she had made it her responsibility to get her homework and take notes for her. She didn't typically take notes, but for her sister, she could suffer two days.

As she wrote down the history notes, she eyed Thor out of the corner of her eye. He'd been to see her sister, and apparently, they were back on.

This caused a wave of feelings she didn't like at all. She had all this frustration and didn't know how to deal with, this wasn't an issue she could punch or smash. Combat class was tomorrow, and she thought she might volunteer to fight Thor and work out some of this aggression she felt.

She knew this was misplaced, but didn't really care. She hated herself for what she'd done, but it was easier to focus on Thor because he was part of it. She knew, in an overall sense, the entire incident with him had been her fault. She'd wanted to bring him out, she challenged him to a drinking contest, and she was the one who initiated the whole incident.

He wasn't blameless, but she knew more of the responsibility was on her, and she hated that she'd been the one to do that to her sister, especially when the whole day had been planned with the intention of looking out for her.

To make things worse, she felt that it wasn't just drunk that caused it. Thor was…well, her idea of a perfect man. Strong, handsome, and not a jerk. He was cocky, but it played well with his personality and came off as more playful than arrogant.

But he liked her sister. He liked her too, but not in the same way. She knew she was hot, and boy's drooled over her, and Thor appreciated her looks, and they got along, they were alike. Bold, outgoing, and they both could drink better than most.

This ugly jealousy made her angrier. She didn't want to feel this way, but couldn't help it.

* * *

Thor

Another day of classes and Thor was mentally wiped, especially after the whole ordeal of with Torchwick. Still, he felt oddly calm after it all, and after talking to Ruby, he felt better. As he strolled around some of the more deserted parts of the campus.

"Thor!" someone called. He recognized it as Yang's voice.

"Yes?" He said, turning to look at her.

"Time to talk." She said, walking up to him, "I hear you and Ruby have…reconciled."

"Yes."

"I thought…I thought you didn't think you would be good for her?"

"I've changed my mind." He said, "I didn't think it's fair to say I could…ruin her, she's had enough sense of self to remain who she is."

"Did you forget what you did to her? How you and me." She said, but he cut her off.

"No, but don't place this all on me. We both made a mistake."

"Mistake?" Her voice cracked, and she looked hurt. "Look, big guy." Her face hardened at this. "I'm happy Ruby's back, and I appreciate your help, but I won't let you hurt my sister again."

Thor's whole body tensed up at this, and he clenched his fist. "Take responsibility for your part in this whole affair, and stop laying all the blame on me!"

Yang's eye's flashed red, and before he knew what happened, he was crashing through a tree. She'd punched him, and hard.

He looked up to see her semblance flaring, her hair and eye's red. He smirked and stood up.

Holding his fist out, lighting started to arc off his arm, and out of his eye's. "So it seems to me we need to work some of the excess energy out."

* * *

Yang

She knew she'd made a bad choice as soon as her fist connected with Thor's stomach. She didn't know what had come over her, but her anger flared up, and she hit him as hard as she could.

And he got up, smiling and lighting arcing and shooting off him. He was ready for a fight, and frankly, so was she.

She rushed forward and raised her fist to strike, and her fist collided with Thor's. The force of his punch was greater than hers' and the electricity arced through her body and she was thrown. But the damage made her stronger. She lunged again and this time caught him on the jaw and sent him to the ground.

She jumped to hit him again, but he rose and wrapped his arms around her and body slammed her and started raining punches on her.

She turtled up and let him, building her strength. After a few moments, then she bucked him off her and kicked him way, and rolled to her feet and hammered right in his temple and he moved to his feet, and he went skidding across the ground, only to pop back up to his feet.

But she was on him and threw another haymaker at him, but this time he palmed her punch away and sidestepped her as she flew by him.

She then felt a tight grip around her ankle, and she had a flashback to the other night when Thor had helped her fight that girl.

Then she felt her self being slammed into the ground over and over with electricity coursing through her body. Then she was flying through the air, and they suddenly stopped as she hit a wall.

Her aura flared, and she clenched her jaw and flew at Thor again, this time he hammered her right on top of the head and send her right into the ground. She actually bounced off the ground he walloped her.

She felt a boot in her side as he landed another hit and she was flying through the air then rolling on the ground.

Pushing herself up, she saw Thor looking down at her, and she realized how much further ahead he was compared to her. She'd gotten her licks in, but he was standing, and she felt like standing would be a challenge. What in the world made him this good?

He was smiling and holding a hand out to help her up. "Get it out of your system?"

She wanted to hit him, but she knew he was out if her league. But at that moment she didn't care. She launched an attack and landed her fist dead center of his face, and hear a satisfying crack.

Thor flew back and Yang though she saw some red mix with it.

* * *

Thor

The sudden attack enraged him but got his blood pumping in a way few things had. He landed on his back, and he thought his nose might be broken but felt more alive in this moment than he had in some time.

Yang came down on him, but he rolled out of the way as she smashed the ground.

He rolled to his feet and saw her glaring at him. Fire seemed to radiate off her, but to his own regard, lighting was arcing off him.

He charged her, but she raised her fist at the same time, she was a natural fighter all thing considered. Their fist's collided, and they blew back from each other.

They both rolled to their feet and rushed each other, but this time as Yang threw another punch, Thor wrapped his arms around her waist and tossed her to the ground.

While she bounced off the ground, Thor mounted her and started raining punches down on her.

She covered herself, but was helpless against the barrage, and soon let her guard drop as Thor hit her over and over in the face.

But this didn't last long before a voice shouted "ENOUGH!" and both were separated but some unseen force.

* * *

Yang

The next thing she remembered after Thor bringing a lighting fist into her face was being in Goodwitche's office.

"You two." Was what she remembered first. "Have displayed behavior completely unforgivable for two students of this illustrious academy." She said, "Fighting on the ground, a shameful display."

Thor said, "I'm sorry for this…"

"Silence!" Goodwitch said, "This is a serious offense." She shouted. "Detention for you both, and be grateful for that, report to me tonight after classes."

She walked out of the room at this, but Yang glared at Thor, but he kept smiling, and an urge to continue the fight rose in her.

* * *

Thor

Detention wasn't the worst; He, in fact, thought it a mild thing. He didn't enjoy it, but he could handle it fine.

Yang, however, kept shooting dirty looks at him while they did several tedious task's together. Sorting old files, moving equipment for classes, and so on.

They'd been at it for two days, and Yang just seemed to get angrier and angrier. This culminated in him accidentally bumping into her, which resulted in an explosion of anger from her.

"Watch it!" She shouted.

"It was an accident." Was all he said and kept to his task, not liking the idea of another fight. He'd seen Yang's team afterward, and Ruby and Blake were extremely distressed over it. Weiss hadn't seemed at all bothered by it.

"You!" She shouted. "I…HATE YOU!" She screamed.

He turned to her and said, "No…you don't. You hate what we did, and can't reconcile the act from the people."

The anger on her face dropped into confusion and then her shoulder's slumped, which surprised him. He'd been expecting another blow-up.

"I can't believe I did that to my sister." She said and dropped down on the ground, "I'm mad, but…I can't punch this problem." She laughed at her own comment.

"I can't tell you how to handle this…but you need to work this out, you can't keep picking fights with me, it isn't good for your health."

She laughed at that, "I think I was giving you a good fight before we got broken up." Thor smiled at her and walked over, extending and hand to help her up, this time she took it, and he pulled her up. "How do you do it?"

"What?"

"Deal with it, I mean, you even went back to my sister after all this, doesn't it eat you up inside?"

"I" Thor started to say and paused to think, "I think it's simply I don't dwell on the past. I can't change it, only learn from it. I'd tell her if you were okay with it, but you aren't, and I recognize it will affect you more than me."

"Thor." She said, "I don't think I'll ever understand how your brain works."

"No." He said, smiling, "I don't think you will."

That made her laugh, "So…Sorry about…attacking you."

"Oh, it was fun even if we ended up here for it," Thor said.

She extended a hand and said, "Friends?"

"Friends." He said as he took it.

* * *

Blake

Her hearing was coming back, but she was still on edge, with her hearing compromised, she had to be more aware of her surroundings than before.

But there was the fact that Thor knew now. She'd been in shock from the incident but once her head had cleared, but she felt foolish over it now.

But he hadn't said anything to her about, and she didn't push the issue. He had enough on his plate after his fight with Yang. She still didn't know what that whole thing had been about. Her best guess was over Thor and Ruby, but it still seemed like a massive overreaction.

She needed to talk to Thor and make thing clear on her situation. She thought he got a general idea, but she needed to make it clear.

But recalling the incident, she felt a pure fondness for Thor. Genuine appreciation for what he'd said and done. She'd never really considered herself a close friend of his but thought now she'd done a great disservice to him.

He was, despite all his bragging and big talk, a good guy. This made that fact her partner had picked a fight with him all the more irritating. She knew Yang had a temper, but that had seemed out of bounds for most situations.

That made her think something else was at play in that fight. What that was, she had no idea, but Yang had unloaded a lot onto Thor, the damage o the campus said as much. Thor hadn't held much back either from what she'd heard.

Yang just seemed, frustrated lately. She picked up on it in a vague way, and any attempt to bring the subject up had resulted in a shutdown.

She cared about her partner, but Yang made it hard at times, with her temper and unwillingness to discuss her feelings in certain situations. But she was great in so many other ways. She was kind, outgoing, nurturing, and caring.

She just wished she could learn to temper her more volatile traits.

* * *

Thor

As he packed up his few belonging to move to JNPR's dorm, he thought over what had caused this change in room assignment.

He thought the fight with Yang may have been a factor, but still, it seemed like there might be more. He couldn't help but note her and Pyrrha were the best in there year, possibly, no probably in the school.

Maybe that was something. Getting the two best to interact, make them improve each other.

He didn't know Pyrrha well, but he liked her well enough. She was strong but humble, something he'd never managed to master.

"Thor?"

It was Ruby, he turned to look at her. "Ruby."

"I'm going to…miss having you around all the time." She blushed and put her hand behind her back and kicked at the ground.

"I will miss being around." He said, setting his box down and walked up to her, "But I'll just be across the hall."

"I know…" She said "But now that we're…officially…you know, I kind of liked the idea of you…being…you know, near me."

Thor smiled at this, she was so uncomfortable in the phrasing of there relationship, but so cute in it all, it made him want to laugh, not that he would, that would hurt her. "I'm still near." He said, "Just across the hall."

"Well, I'll let you move in, I'll see you at dinner." She said, hugging him and heading off.

Team JNPR wasn't around while he moved his few possession's in. Unlike team RWBY, JNPR hadn't opted for bunkbeds, it seemed all of them had far few personal effects than anyone on RWBY except Blake. He didn't know if them not being here meant they were okay with it or not. As he looked around, to see where he was going to set up. Then he spotted it, a corner of the room had a camping bed folded up with a piece of paper taped to it.

He walked over to it and looked at the paper, and it said "Thor" on it. Plucking it up, he opened it, and it read

"Hey, thought you might like something to sleep on other than a bedroll." -Team JNPR.

That made him feel better, a small act of kindness, it amazed him how much that could make someone feel better.

He'd have to pay them back…somehow.

* * *

Pyrrha

Jaune had seemed excited when they were told that Thor would be moving into their dorm, which surprised Pyrrha, but confirmed something she'd hoped wasn't the case. Jaune's increase in skill was astounding from the start of the school year, he had to of had a teacher or trainer. And she was sure it was Thor now. What bothered her was why he hadn't come to her. Not to seem vain but she knew she was probably the best fighter in their year, except…for Thor.

Their sparing match had made it clear he was on another level to the other students, just like she was. But she was Jaune's partner, and it made her upset that he hadn't asked for her help.

But, she also understood Jaune was embarrassed over his…short comings. Maybe turning to someone outside of the team was easier for him to handle, someone who he didn't see all the time.

That would change now if he'd been reassigned to their dorm. And that was another thing, why?

Sure the fight he'd had with Yang had been bad and resulted in a moderately severe amount of property damage for the school. But in all honesty that didn't seem right, as the very nature of the school made such loss reasonably common. Maybe not in the same manner, but in a more general sense.

Was it maybe something to do with his relationship with Ruby? Or was it a combination of several factors?

Or something she wasn't seeing. It all seemed odd at any rate, it just changed where he slept, and to a lesser extent when he was around.

Thor didn't have a team, do to pure coincidence, or so it was claimed. If he wasn't like he was, she might have bought that line, but he was so…good. It felt more like Ozpin didn't want to lose him and re-worked the rules on a technicality to keep him around.

That seemed somehow nefarious to her like he was using the students for something. But she shook her head and pushed it out of her mind. That was ridiculous, she was just over analyzing things.

* * *

Weiss

Thor had taken his sparse belonging out of the dorm by the time she got back. If she was honest, it was a relief to her. Having a boy in their room made certain things harder. Just dressing was awkward for everyone, well, Thor and Yang didn't mind, but the rest of them were uncomfortable with it. Not that Thor had ever spied on them, he was respectful in that regard and left whenever one of them needed the room.

She knew that wasn't fair really, because many of the teams were co-ed and had to put up with similar situations.

But there was more about Thor that made her uncomfortable. He was…to strong. It wasn't that she was jealous, well maybe a little, but no it was more than that. It didn't seem at all natural he was this good, especially given his background.

People like her and Pyrrha had exceptional training, and Pyrrha combined that with extraordinary talent. Weiss knew she wasn't untalented, but Pyrrha was on another level. But they had both received exceptional training.

Thor had not, he'd gone an ordinary school with combat courses. And even then he was unnaturally good. She'd gathered bits and piece of information over the time he'd stayed with them and learned enough of his back story to get the picture.

And then there was his equipment. How had he made it? It was far more technical than any other students, or even the fully trained huntsmen she'd meet. It seemed far to advance for a student to have made, yet it was accepted that he did. In truth, it seemed beyond even the Atlas military in some regards, which was astounding.

She didn't think anyone else had picked up on how bizarre it was his gear was a full weapons system, probably because he rarely showed it's full capabilities, he didn't need to.

But she'd seen at least some of it during initiation, and Thor had made a few mentions of what it could do to Ruby. Ruby…being the weapon's fanatic she was, just absorbed it, but she didn't think she really processed what it all meant.

This brought her to the one question she'd had in the back of her mind since day one but now dominated her thoughts ever since they'd saved Ruby.

Where the hell did he come from?

* * *

Jaune

For the first time what felt like forever, he was training with Thor on the roof. After the whole ordeal with Torchwick, Jaune wanted to get better, because he'd honestly felt useless.

Thor had actually praised his efforts, but he still felt like he'd been little more than a distraction. He wanted to be better.

And he took to his practice with more vigor, and this had resulted in a much quicker beating from Thor. But it felt good to be working this hard. And he always enjoyed how they had their little talks afterward. Thor seemed to be able to give good advice whenever they talked.

"So…" Jaune said as he sat down from the match. "After all this, and with the dance coming up, I think Weiss might…well wanted to ask her to go."

Thor raised his hand in a manner that seemed...almost irritated. "Jaune." He said, "Weiss…she will not accept your invitation."

"But…" He said feeling like the wind had been taken out of his sails.

"It's not you." He said, "She isn't in mind, set to accept your…feelings." He said, "You are genuine in your feelings, but she is cynical and suspicious of them." He said, "You can't blame her, after the life she's lived, but it doesn't matter for your situation, she isn't going to reciprocate."

"But…I'm stronger, and I even was helpful during the whole Torchwick."

"It doesn't matter." He said, "She's not in place to trust." He said, "She'll only be willing to expose herself to someone she initiates the relationship with."

Jaune's shoulder's slumped, and he felt suddenly drained.

"Jaune." He said, " You have someone who likes are you right in front of you." Thor said.

Jaune sat upright in an instant, suddenly scared "Thor…you aren't…I mean, you and Ruby…"

Thor broke out in laughter, and Jaune suddenly felt stupid.

"No I'm not, and I'm talking about Pyrrha."

"Pyrrha?"

"She is clearly into you." Thor said, "Ask her, you'll both be happier for it."

"But…She's my partner."

"Trust me," Thor said. "She likes you."

Jaune felt…weird. He liked Pyrrha, but the idea of liking her like that? It made him uncomfortable, but it excited him at the same time. She was beautiful and strong and kind…but she was so much…better than him. Thor had to be wrong.

"Thor." He said, "She's just…better than me. I mean why me when she could have anyone?"

Thor laughed, "Love." He said, "That is the one universal equalizer. Even the All-Father has no power over it." Thor walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder "Love can't be controlled, it simply is, and we can either embrace it or reject it, what will you do?"

Jaune was confused with the wording of "All-Father," but he liked the idea of love being a force unto itself, that simply was. And the fact it made his general situation seem less hopeless.

But he felt scared at the idea of Pyrrha liking him. If Thor were wrong, he'd embarrass himself and make his partner feel incredibly awkward.

"Trust me," Thor said, smiling at him and Jaune felt like he could.

* * *

Blake

She'd been waiting for Thor for a while, but she knew that he'd be coming back to his room around this time. He'd had this pattern for a while and only broke it a few times. He and Jaune would both return late at night after some serious activity, and Jaune was always covered in bruises.

She had a good idea of what they were doing but wasn't her business. But she needed to talk to Thor, and now that he was haring living quarters with Jaune the chance to catch him alone was virtually zero. Jaune would know about at least the fact she wanted a private talk with Thor.

But that didn't worry her too much, aside from Ruby, she didn't think there was another student she knew who would keep these types of facts to themselves.

But as the two walked down the hall, she walked up to them. "Thor," she said, "We need to talk.". Jaune gave her and Thor a confused look but soon moved on. He was a good guy, but he was so…submissive in general that it made it hard for her to respect him as a leader. She was left alone with Thor in the hall, and he just looked at her with patience. "Follow me." She said and lead him to a stairwell.

Thor sat down on the stairs and said before she could say anything, "How are your ears?"

Blake reached up to touch the bandaging he'd put on. She hadn't recovered her hearing totally, but she was on the mend. "Better." She said, "And that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"You don't have to worry about me saying anything." He said. "I know or suspect at least you have your reasons."

She hugged herself, yes, she did have reasons to hide, but they shamed her. "Thor…I just…no one knows except you."

"And no one will until you are ready." He said, standing up, "But I suggest you tell your team at least, the longer you wait, the more betrayed they will feel."

He was right, of course, but the idea seemed so…risky. He walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder and seemed so much older at that moment. "They will understand, even if they are angry initially over the secrecy, but they will understand. Don't wait on this." He smiled and walked out of the stairwell.

That smile. He was always smiling, and she couldn't understand it. He seemed…so sure of what would happen and how things would turn out. He smiled at most things and was so confident. She wished she could that confident with her own issues.

She wanted to believe him, that they would fine with her, but doubt still lurked in her mind. Especially with Weiss.

At least, for now, Thor had given her his word that he would be quiet.

* * *

Yang

With Thor out of their dorm, it felt oddly…empty. She guessed she was just used to him being around after all this time, but still, she sort of missed him even though he was just across the hall.

After her fight with him and the detention, which she and he were still serving, she'd realized that she needed to work on some of her anger issues. The fact she attacked him and demolished part of the school really did tell her something of her temper.

Up until now, she'd seen her temperament as an advantage, it let her semblance fire up and gave her a considerable boost. But this sort of thing, attacking a classmate was not really constructive. She wasn't even sure she had a right to be mad at him, which made the whole situation worse.

She may not like what he and Ruby had going on, but her sister was old enough to make these decisions herself, and Thor was…well he wasn't answerable to her.

But she felt like he should be, after there night together. She knew that wasn't something they were proud of and was a really just a night that came from drinking. But it still happened, and she couldn't let it go.

But she had to. She'd made the decision to not tell Ruby, and that meant she had to accept the fact this was something bury. Thor had been willing to tell her sister, but she wasn't. That would be a catastrophe for both of them.

But she couldn't stop thinking about it. How…great the whole thing felt.

She wanted Thor…but he liked Ruby and Ruby liked him, and she would die to make Ruby happy. She felt like that was what was happening.

She never expected a boy to come between her and her sister, but that seemed like it was happening, and she hated it. She hated herself for what she was doing to her sister.

She just wished all of the things would go away. She wished she could have these feeling without hurting her sister. But she couldn't, so she only had one choice.

Her sister came first, and that was all there was to it.

* * *

 **AN: Please review or PM me to let me know what you think.**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:Okay so some good news. I've got a Beta read now, hammerstorm, and it's been a huge help.**

 **Also, this chapter and the next, are sort of part of one larger chapter, which is reason for the delay, at least in part.**

* * *

Ozpin

All things considered, the whole ordeal with Torchwick had ended better than he could have hoped for. While he still didn't like celebrating, with Cinder on the loose with half a Maiden's power, the whole ordeal seemed to have driven her underground for the time, he wasn't even picking up whispers about her or her companions.

Torchwick was currently in prison, or more accurately, the prison hospital. He'd had the nerve to say he was filing a lawsuit against the school because one of the students had crippled him. Of course, nothing would come of it, it was just the man causing trouble and stirring up problems any way he could.

But the fact was that Thor had broken both of his legs to make him talk, which was…oddly vicious for him. For all the time he'd known the boy, he'd never seen this level of aggression. He liked to fight, but he'd never done severe, lasting injuries to anyone. A number of his classmates have had some nasty bruises, and in the worst cases some minor fractures, but nothing that required hospitalization, and certainly not extended-term care.

It wasn't that he thought Thor had done anything wrong, or at least not outside the realm of what some others might do, but it was a sudden shift he hadn't been expecting to learn about.

Still, other than that, he thought the whole experience had actually been beneficial to all the students involved, at least in the long term. It was a hard lesson, but one that would help them in the lives they'd chosen, and the fact that they'd all made it out intact just made it better.

The only one who seemed to have actually taken a turn down was Ms. Xiao Long. Something had deeply upset her over the whole ordeal, and he felt like it was more than just concern over her sister. That was part of it for sure, but the fact she'd picked a fight with Mr. Odinson, and it was a vicious fight, were indications of other problems.

She'd been one of the most outgoing students in her classes before and now was somewhat subdued by comparison. It seemed moving Thor to team JNPR's dorm had been wise if there was tension between the two.

That was another thing that was working out. Ms. Nikos had always been kind and courteous, but it was clear she felt alienated from her peers, even her teammates didn't seem to fully understand her. Mr. Arc treated her in a normal manner, usually, which she clearly appreciated, yet at the same time, he didn't understand her loneliness.

Thor did, and it was clear that having someone who was on her skill level had done wonders for her emotional health and how sharing a room with him had boosted her mood. Thor could beat her in a fight, and that made him understand her skills, but not hold her in special regard.

Of course, Jaune had done much of that already, but having another person treat her like a person had really helped her.

* * *

Jaune

"Jaune." Thor said to him, "I sometimes wonder how you can be so smart and so stupid at the same time."

"Yeah?" Jaune said, slumping in a chair in their dorm. "How's that?" He didn't really care right now.

"Weiss." He said, " I told you it wouldn't go well, and I guess I can't fault you for trying the first times, but you keep trying for reason's I still don't understand."

"She's just…perfect." He muttered.

"Even so, what in the world made you think 'serenading' her would work?"

He could tell Thor wanted to laugh but was holding back, and he appreciated it, but he wasn't really in the mood for more of his "wisdom."

"Thor I just…"

"Pyrrha." He cut him off, "Ask her, trust me." Jaune didn't respond right away but just looked at his hands. "Whatever else you feel, Weiss at this point isn't far from getting a restraining order, I'm not sure what your plan was here, but you haven't done anything other than irritating her, the chances of her even tolerating you right now are low."

"I was always told…confidence."

"Yes, yes." Thor cut him off again, and if he wasn't feeling so defeated he might have gotten irritated at this. "Confidence is good, but knowing when to retreat is just as important."

Jaune sighed, sometimes when he was talking to Thor, he felt like he was talking to his dad. Not that they were much alike, but the sense of authority felt the same as with his parents.

"So…" Jaune mumbled, "What do I do?"

Thor sighed, "Whatever you like I suppose." He said, standing up, "I've given you my advice, take it or leave it." He made his way to the door, "I'm going to get something to eat." And with that, he walked out.

* * *

Weiss

Jaune was truly irritating her lately. The dance, the dance, the dance. Every time she saw him, he brought it up and asked her. She had enough on her plate without him causing issues like these for her.

The student's from other school's were arriving, and she'd been eager to analyze them for potential competition. They would be her opponents, and it was best to know your competition.

She'd wanted to be at the docks the day they arrived, but she'd been sidetracked by her other mission. Using her father's connections and clout, she was looking into Thor's past and seeing if there was any record of him or his family.

Unfortunately, she didn't learn much more than she already knew, at least so far. But what was truly interesting was that his equipment didn't seem to match any existing data in the Atlas database. She had been sure up to this point that it would have been impossible for him to had made it entirely on his own. Not that she thought he'd stolen it or anything of the sort, but it was rare to see someone, and a student in particular, develop a weapon from scratch. They often took inspiration from someone close to them or whom they admired. Ruby was an obvious example of this, she took partial inspiration from her uncle.

But Thor just seemed to have appeared appear one day, in more ways than one. He'd been found and brought to an orphanage when he was a child and there was no documentation of him anywhere in Atlas or Vale, and from what she could gatherfrom the other kingdoms, she came to the conclusion that it was the same there.

Even his name and surname weren't coming up anywhere. He just…showed up with equipment no student had. All these blank spaces just made her all the more suspicious.

She'd thought of talking to her team about this, but that didn't seem like something that would go over well. Ruby at least wouldn't like her looking into Thor's past. Yang would support Ruby on this issue, as her sister and Blake would likely side with Yang.

She just didn't have anything to support her suspicion, at least nothing concrete. He was odd and extraordinary, but there wasn't anything in his life to indicate anything unusual. And what did she think she'd find? Was it idle curiosity, or did she think he wasn't as "great" as he seemed?

It was just…he seemed off in some vague way, or several ways and she needed to know what. She hated being in the dark, especially when he was so close to her team, physically and emotionally.

* * *

Thor

Thor stood on the ledge over the forest where they had faced initiation. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he thought of his life in this world.

He was happy, as things were, but he felt, or maybe knew that this wasn't right. There had to be more to why he was here, why his father had sent him. Was he being punished? Tested? Or was he here to help fix something.

He'd felt something in the air, from his first day here, and it had only grown stronger in recent days. The winds, even in this mortal form, called and spoke to him. He felt that the change was in the air, and not all of it was good. Indeed, he thought it was going to be for the worse. But he didn't know where it was coming from, just a general sense of dread and disaster.

And then there was the question, how could he reclaim his power? Every time he'd been tested, there was a way. His hammer, that was the key, he was sure of it. But how? And where? Sometimes, in his dreams, he thought he could feel it. He wasn't sure If it was real or just a longing to reclaim his status as a god.

But…being a mortal wasn't so bad. He…felt things differently now. When he was a god, everything seemed to be…well, it seemed like there was no rush, that there was always time. Currently, his time was limited, and that made him more willing to act and try new things, where before he'd felt no particular rush, at least in time tables humans considered urgent.

He sat down and let his legs dangle over the edge of the cliff. He looked at the sky and fell onto his back. It was blue with a fair number of clouds, it might rain tonight, depending on how the winds moved.

He was better than most at predicting the weather, but despite what many had assumed in his past life, he didn't actually know how to predict the weather perfectly. Why would he? He could change it and make it what he wanted. It was his to control, and when he lost his powers , he was still sensitive to it, but reading signs of it was not something he'd ever learned.

And he didn't care to, it just served as a reminder of what he couldn't do. His semblance allowed for small, local weather control, but not on the scale he'd done before.

Still, now he thought he appreciated the beauty of the sky more than before, it was untouchable now, and that made it seem…nobler.

"Thor?" A voice called. It took him a moment to come out of his thoughts to realize it was Ruby.

"Hmmm?" He said, placing his hands behind his head as he said it.

"What are you doing?" She asked as she walked up next to him and sat down.

"Thinking." He said, looking at the sky, watching as the clouds moved.

"About what?"

"Things…" He said, which he knew was going to make her ask more questions, but he stifled a smile.

"What things?"

"Stuff." He said as his lips started to curve into a smile.

"Thor!" Her voice becoming higher in her frustration. She leaned over him, her face changing from irritation to a slight embarrassment as she saw his smile." You're messing with me!" He sat up laughing, and she gave him a slight shove, laughing along with him. "So what are you doing?"

"I am thinking." He said as his laughter trailed off, "But more about… well." He though for a moment to come up with a topic unrelated to his divinity "Jaune." He said, thinking of his earlier conversation with the young man.

"Jaune? What about him?"

"You've certainly noticed his repeated attempted to ask Weiss to the dance?"

"Yeah…kinda hard not to." She said, rubbing the back of her neck, clearly remembering how awkward things had been.

"I've tried to talk him out of the whole ordeal," Thor said. "He's making a fool out of himself, and frankly Weiss is not far from hurting him." He said.

"Yeah…but…it's not really our business." She said.

"Maybe." He said, "Still…as their friends, it seems we have some responsibility to at least help them, even in a small way."

"Maybe…"She muttered.

"Ruby." He said, suddenly feeling a spike of dread, from where he couldn't identify.

"What?"

As quick as it came, the feeling faded, but he'd learned long ago to not ignore his instincts.

"I've…been helping Jaune trained." He said, quickly changing from what he initially thought of saying.

"Yeah…I know, we all know." She said, "No way he's improved as much as he has without a teacher."

"Well, I was thinking, maybe you'd like to join us?" He said. "He might benefit from having someone who fights differently."

"I guess." She said, " I mean, I guess I can. I might even learn something if you're teaching." She said with a smile. She paused, "So…that dance…You going to ask anyone?" She blushed at this, she was trying to be cute. Which was ridiculous, she didn't have to try, but this was ridiculous.

"Maybe." He said, scratching his chin. "There was one girl." He looked away but cast his eyes back at her, smiling.

"Yeah?" She said, looking him, her face completely flushed, but keeping her eyes on him. "What's she like?"

"Oh…you wouldn't care about that sort of thing." He got up and turned his back on her to hide his smile. Teasing her was so easy, even if she caught on quickly.

"But I do!" She jumps to her feet.

"Well, she's a little younger than me." He said, still not looking at her, his face is now broken into a full grin. "She likes red, is maybe a little too into weapons."

"Yeah?!" Her voice getting higher with excitement.

At that point, he broke down and started laughing, turning to look at her "I'm sorry." He managed to get out.

"Thor!" She bit her lip and puffed her cheeks up in a show of frustration, but he also thought she was trying not to laugh.

"Well, what about it?" He asked, " Want to go with simple old me?"

Her face contorted into an expression of biting her inside cheeks, and then she started laughing.

"Of course!"

* * *

Jaune

He didn't know if he was going to head to his training session tonight honestly. He knew, in the end he'd go, but still, he felt terrible. Not only in his own attempts to win Weiss over but in a general sense. He did feel bad over making her feel uncomfortable.

But…he didn't know what else to do. Thor had suggested Pyrrha , but she was…even more perfect. How could she…like him? But Thor was…smart in ways he didn't understand. In some ways, it was off-putting, but he liked the guy. And he'd been helpful, and in the whole incident with Ruby and Torchwick, he'd taken the lead once they all came together.

But…she was his partner, he didn't want to screw that up.

"Jaune!" a familiar voice called.

"Thor!" he turned to look at his friend but stopped when he saw he wasn't alone "Ruby?"

"You need other opponents than me," Thor said.

"You didn't think you should ask me if this was okay?!" Jaune hissed at Thor.

"We all already know." Ruby cut in, making Jaune's heart sink.

"Jaune." Thor cut in, "You need to practice against someone else."

Well, he knew that, but it seemed so…weird that he'd suddenly bring Ruby in.

"I guess." He muttered.

"Good," Thor said. "Then start!"

* * *

Ruby

Jaune was good…better than she'd expected him to be in fact.

As she flew around him to land a hit, he stood his ground and deflected her attacks with his shield. He was like a turtle, and she was getting mildly frustrated with his static tactics.

Thor had taught him more than she'd expected, and frankly, she was impressed her friend had come so far, to give her a hard time.

She rushed him again, and this time, he stepped to meet her and managed to throw her to the ground.

she rolled onto her back to retaliate but Jaune was on her, and she barely managed to roll out of the way of his sword. But as she came to her feet, she was hit with his shield and thrown back, and he landed a hit with his sword.

He was not this good a few weeks ago. And she knew at that moment she couldn't hold back and shifted to melee mode and hit him as hard as she could.

He went flying into the air, and at that moment she thought she'd thrown him off the roof, and her heart sank. She hadn't meant to do that, this was just a training match, she'd just forgotten where they were.

But before he could go soaring over the edge, Thor grabbed him and threw him, not so gently back onto the roof.

Jaune rolled and eventually came to his feet, looking ready to fight, but Thor said, "Enough!"

* * *

Thor

Thor was proud of Jaune's performance, but this was enough for tonight. "Enough." He shouted. "You've both done enough."

"But…"Jaune muttered, "I can still fight."

Thor smiled "Let yourself recover."

"But…" He began.

"Recovery is as important as the training," Thor said as he walked over to Ruby, who was breathing heavily but didn't seem to otherwise be affected. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She gasped, "Jaune." She said, looking at her friend, " You're…good…I didn't think you'd be this good this fast."

Jaune blushed and rubbed the back of his head "Thor is the real reason, he helped me."

Ruby turned to look at Thor and smiled and blushed ever so slightly "Of course, he's….great." And without warning stepping closer to him and pushed herself against him, and wrapped her arm around him.

"Indeed." Thor said flexing, "I am great." Which made both Ruby and Jaune laugh. He smiled at this.

A few minutes passed as they talked. But soon enough, they were tired and ready for bed.

"I think." He said, "We need to rest."

* * *

Yang

She'd never felt so run down in her whole life. The cocktail of emotions she was feeling all the time was breaking her down. She wasn't sleeping well, and she couldn't concentrate in class. Her team was worried about her, and she kept telling them everything was alright even when it clearly wasn't. She couldn't talk to them about what was really bothering her, not without disastrous results for at the very least her relationship with her sister.

Ruby was the most visibly worried, Blake and Weiss were much more stoic so they didn't show it as much, but she knew they were concerned.

But what could she do? Tell them? That was not going to happen, she'd decided on that when Thor and Ruby were now officially dating and spending more time together.

But at the same time, that was what made her stomach turn. Seeing them together, after what she and Thor had done, and her own personal epiphany sent her anxiety through the roof.

She tried to look at other guys or girls, but none of them caught her interest, not after Thor. Even the older students didn't match up.

She needed to talk to someone, but there wasn't anyone she felt like she could. Part of her knew that in all honesty, she probably could trust Blake, but there was more to it than that. The shame she felt, she didn't want her partner to think less of her.

While she'd never told Blake in so many words, she thought a great deal of her. She thought she knew, but they didn't talk about it. That aside, Blake seemed preoccupied with something else, and Yang didn't wanted to push to know, given her own secret.

That was another thing, the whole team seemed to have split apart internally. They all seemed in their own little worlds, and she thought she could place the start of all this too when they'd saved Ruby. Had that whole ordeal done something to them all?

But it didn't matter, because her own internal chaos made it impossible to even try and work it out. She felt like she needed a drink, but she didn't think that was a good idea, not after the last time.

She needed a shower, help herself relax, maybe then she could try and figure out how to get her head and the team together.

* * *

Pyrrha

Her whole life, she'd felt an odd sense of isolation due to her skills and power. She'd been treated differently, not badly but differently.

Jaune had changed that when he'd had no clue who she was besides a vague recognition. Thor had been the second one to make her feel normal, when they had sparred in class he'd pushed her harder than anyone else ever had and probably would have won if Goodwitch hadn't called it off to stop damage to the classroom.

She liked Thor, but Jaune was just…she wished he'd notice her in the way she wanted. But he was so interested in Weiss, despite her clearly not returning his feelings.

As she entered her dorm, she thought of this and other things.

"Heavy thoughts?" A voice came from behind her. It was Thor.

"You could say that." She said, smiling at him.

"Jaune…" Thor said, "He's got a good heart, but…he doesn't seem to see some things like he should."

"Maybe….where is Jaune?" she asked.

"Locker room ," Thor said.

"This late?"

"We did some sparring ." He said, "I know about…something between you and him, and I know…you like him more than a friend."

Pyrrha blushed at this. "Well, …it's simply."

"Don't count on him to make the first move." Thor said, "He's bright in many ways, but he's blind here."

Thor had an authority about him she associated with her parents or her teachers, even though he was a student like them. And this air of power had the effect of making people listen to him.

"Thor… I just."

"If you want him to know, you must do it yourself," Thor said as he sat down and took off his boots. "Do what you will."

* * *

Thor

As Thor lay down to go to sleep, his mind couldn't help bring up the fact he was getting caught up in many of the typical problems of teenagers. Social issues, dating, and so on. The thing was he didn't really think he should be, he was here for something.

The problem was he didn't have a clue as to what, or why. His hammer, where was it? It called to him all the time before, but now it seemed silent.

He'd been playing his role as a teenager well, mostly because he felt like one again, but he knew there was more to this whole ordeal and it would be wise of him not to forget that.

As he slipped off to sleep, he couldn't help but wonder about so many things.

And he dreamed.

He was in a forest in autumn walking. The air was crisp and wet from recent rain. He inhaled the clean air and smiled.

He kept walking until he came to a crater in the forest. It looked old, overgrown with new plants for years.

He climbed into it and walked to the center. He didn't know why, but he dug with his hands, and soon he saw a familiar handle. He grasped it and pulled…it didn't budge.

He grabbed it with both hands and pulled, but it didn't budge.

A crack of lightning and a boom of thunder only made him pull harder. Rain fell hard and cold, but he kept pulling. water filled the crater, and he still didn't stop, even when he was submerged, and he somehow could still breath.

Until something pulled him away, and he was now somewhere else, deep in some other body of water. He was wrapped in the coils of something huge, and it crushed him.

Then he woke up. Sitting up in his cot, he looked around the room to see the other's still sleeping.

A dream…just a dream. But it seemed so vivid he wondered if it was meant to be something else.

He sat on the edge of his cot and looked at his scroll. Just past midnight. It's now Saturday morning, which felt like a relief, he doubted he'd fall back asleep anytime soon.

He wiped his forehead, which was covered in sweat. He hadn't realized it at first, but he was soaked. He felt like he needed a shower, but he didn't want to wake up JNPR.

He'd go to the locker room then. Grabbing a change of clothes, he walked to the locker room and thought on his dream.

Was it his subconscious telling him something or a message from his father? It felt too real to be a common dream.

His hammer was…somewhere in a forest. He needed to find it. Never mind he couldn't lift it in his dream, but the later part, the coils of some creature. That made him uncomfortable, the World Serpent was the first thing on his mind.

He had no skill in dream interpretation, but some things were clear enough.

He walked into the locker room and stripped down and walked into the shower and turned on the cold water.

He didn't take hot showers like the other students. He liked the cold water, it felt like the rain to him, rain in the autumn.

"Who's in here?" A voice called.

"I am!" Thor called, not bothering to step out from his shower.

"Thor?" the voice said, and he recognized it as Yang.

"Indeed."

"What are you doing here?" She called from the locker room.

"I could ask you the same thing."

The showers were "co-ed" after a fashion, but during school hours they had an alternating schedule for boys and girls to use them that changed every half hour. Not so during the night.

"I need a shower." She said, "You going to be in there long?"

"Yes." He called, "But come in if you like, I won't look." He laughed at this "Even if I did, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

"Smartass." She said but starting walking in, he had his eyes closed , but he heard her clearly.

He heard her turn on another showerhead and before long he could feel the steam. Yang took hot showers. He also thought he smelled alcohol.

"Had a drink?" He said eyes still closed.

"Yeah." She said, "Not a great idea but I needed to relax." She mumbled.

She was still up late…or early he supposed. Drinking might be the cause he guessed.

"Well, a shower can be relaxing."

"Yeah." She said, but he thought he heard her voice crack, and then he heard something that made him turn around. She was crying.

"Yang?"

She was sitting on the floor of the shower, her face in her hand, and sobbing. "I feel…dirty!" She cried, "What I did to Ruby! How…I'm…I can't…I just wish…" Thor walked over to her, and she looked up at him "Thor…I just can't make it alright." She sobbed.

He knelt down next to her and put his arm around her and pulled her close. "I'm sorry." He said.

"I just…I feel so guilty, and I hate that it happened, but I want it to happen again." She looked him in the eye. "I want you…but I shouldn't." She was crying with the shower pouring on them, "I…hate me for all this." She cupped his face, "I hate you." She said sobbing.

"The skein of life is woven on the day." He started

"Stop with all the predetermined crap." She shouted, pushing away from him "All that destiny crap doesn't change anything, what we did to Ruby, and how I want to keep hurting her."

"You want to hurt her?'

"No!" She shouted, "But…I want to keep doing the things that hurt her." She screamed and put her face in her hands, "What is wrong with me!"

"You…" Thor started, "There are forces even the All-father can't control." He said, he didn't say love, because he thought that might make the situation worse.

"What the hell is an 'All-father'?" she almost screamed.

He realized his mistake at that moment, and he'd have to try and cover it up. "A turn of phrase." He said, "It just means…fate after a fashion."

Yang was so distressed she didn't seem to really care. "Thor! I hate you so much!"

He sighed, "No, you don't" He walked up to her, "You hate what we did, and what you want to do."

She screamed again, "How do I fix this!" and dropped to the ground back.

He grabbed her shoulder and looked into her eyes . "Tell her what happened." His heart sank at the idea, but he knew that was the only solution to the situation. It would be terrible and have consequences for them all, but it was the only way to clear her conscience .

"I can't," she said. "she'll hate me…and you."

"Maybe." He said but knew it was more like probably, but he couldn't stand to see her like this. He had his own guilt over the situation, but his own view on life, in general, making it easier to handle. "But for your own sake, you need to clear the air. She is your sister, she'll forgive you, eventually, but you can't keep this bottled up."

"What about you?" she asked.

He smiled "The skein of life is woven on the day of our birth, we may run and hide, but we won't live a moment longer or change our fate."

'What the hell does that even mean?" Yang said with a nervous laugh. "It's some kind of destiny thing, right?"

"Of a sort, yes."

"You believe in destiny?"

"Yes, …and no." He said. She looked confused. "I believe in destiny, but we choose how we react to it, and how we handle the events of our lives."

"I still don't get it…"

"I suppose you don't have to… you just have to figure out what you're going to do next."

"I…have to tell her," Yang said, running her fingers through her hair. "after the dance, I want her to at least have that before I smash her world."

"If you wish," Thor said, "But I'd advise against that, if you are going to do it, the sooner, the better."

"I know…but I just." She said, "Ruby's never really been this outgoing before, and I feel like I'm about destroying all that progress." She looked him dead in the eye, "You aren't nearly as resistant to this as you should be."

Yes, it was true, he wasn't at all looking forward to the eventual disaster this was going to be. But in his long life, he'd learned many things, and one of them was how to handle emotional problems. It was harder than it might have been otherwise with the body of a young man, but he was ready to suffer the fallout. Avoiding it wouldn't make it better.

He would have told Ruby already if it weren't for the fact that it was Yang, and this made the whole thing not only worse but made the fallout wider than if he'd slept with someone who she didn't know. And there was their team dynamic to consider.

It would happen now, but he felt that if this was going to affect so many more people than just him, it wasn't his place to make the call on his own.

"Thor…" Yang said.

"Yes?"

"Never mind." She said and turned to face the wall.

"So be it," Thor said.

* * *

Yang

It wasn't until she was alone that she realized she and Thor had been stark naked the entire time they had talked, and that didn't bother her at all. That alone struck home how upset she had been, and frankly still was. That she didn't even care at all.

That had been something she'd only ever experienced twice in her life. Once, when she had been completely drunk, and when she'd been looking for her mother when she was younger. Both times, she'd been in mindsets that made everything other than the task at hand seem unimportant. She'd have to talk to Ruby, that much was clear.

It wasn't going to be pleasant, and it was going to cause a lot of problems. But things couldn't continue as they were. Her own well being aside, it had honestly felt wrong to not tell her sister.

This would, more than likely, mean the end of Ruby's first relationship. Honestly, it was something she'd have to deal with at some point. But this was probably the worst way for it to happen.

She had some time to brace herself for the fallout, but it was going to be a horrible experience. She hoped Thor was right, and her sister would forgive her.

* * *

Ozpin

The letter from Ironwood was…disconcerting, to say the least. If what it said was true, and it seemed it might be, things weren't going to go well with the best student in his first-year class.

He'd be waiting on the files, but Ironwood wasn't known for dishonesty, at least of this type. If Ironwood was deceiving someone, he was prone to omitting things, and silence rather than outright lies.

If true, then Thor had to be handled. He'd wait for actual evidence, until then, things would continue on as usual. This may be a simple misunderstanding or a case of mistaken identity.

But if this were correct, it would be a delicate situation. Because regardless if this was true, Thor was still an exceptionally skilled and powerful individual with a keen instinct for battle. He was also known to have a temper when pushed in the right or wrong way. If he got wind of anything out of the ordinary, he wasn't going to be easy to bring in.

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that. But if Thor really was sick…he needed help.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Okay, this the second half of the chapter.**

* * *

Ozpin

As Ozpin looked through the documents, files and video Ironwood had sent him, he felt his stomach turn. If these were real, and he had no reason to think they weren't, Thor was not only unwell but in serious trouble.

According to this information, Thor was still an orphan, but was from Atlas, and had a history of psychotic episodes where he thought he was, at various points, a god, a legendary hero and even a doctor. The last one seemed an odd companion to the other two, but when it came to mental illness logic rarely applied. Apparently, the Atlas military had taken him into their care for treatment, but also to study some of his more unique traits. He was preternaturally strong, which Ozpin knew, and didn't tire as quickly as others according to the file.

The goal had been to treat him and, hopefully, train him, but one day a few years ago, he'd had another episode, stolen blueprints for a new weapons system and disappeared. How he'd managed it hadn't ever been satisfactorily explained, but the nurse on duty had been charged with negligence and fired.

The boy was exceptional, true enough, but he was a danger to himself and others, especially when in the middle of an episode. In all the years Ozpin had known him, he'd seemed off, but he never had suspected mental health issues. But the files and documentation told him enough.

Ironwood said in their talk that he'd figured out the boy's location once Thor had been featured in the news on Torchwick. He was demanding the return of the blueprints Thor had taken, and also wanted Thor returned to Atlas. That second demand Ozpin had refused. Thor, regardless of whatever else, was still a student of Beacon, and his responsibility.

Once Thor was…brought in, he'd be under his supervision. Because despite all of this, he still felt that there was something of the divine touching the young man. He still wanted to know what that was.

Thor would get help here in Vale and hopefully cooperate. He'd outright refused to let Atlas military specialist handle this. He'd have to have come up with some other plan to deal with the situation, but he didn't think Thor would go in quietly, but he must be given the chance.

But what was the best chance of making him see reason?

* * *

Thor

He had a sense of imminent danger, and he didn't know why. He knew that eon's of battle experience had given him an almost sixth sense of potential threat, but this was something else. He didn't know where it came from, but he knew better than to ignore it. As a result, in the last few days, he'd taken to wearing his battle harness, belt and bracers at all times under his normal clothes.

He thought, in some vague way, his talk with Yang may simply be bothering him, and he was thinking of the inevitable conflict of it. But when he examined those feelings, while they were unpleasant, they weren't the same.

He was now ready at all times for a fight. He knew this wasn't a healthy mindset, but he couldn't shake the need to be prepared for any sudden attacks. He didn't have his hammer or his maul, but this was the best he could do without raising attention.

He'd considered telling the others, but as he didn't have anything other than a feeling of dread, at best he would just upset them. There was a chance he was wrong after all. In this body, he noticed his decision and feelings weren't always as sound as they had been.

He didn't think his dream had anything to do with it, but he didn't rule it out either.

* * *

Ruby

Being called by the headmaster wasn't a pleasant idea. It made her feel like she'd done something wrong, which she hadn't, she didn't think so, at least not recently.

Her whole team walked silently into an empty classroom and sat down. She saw Jaune's team coming in after them, and this made her feel somewhat calmer. It made her feel like maybe they weren't in trouble.

They exchanged greetings, but soon all sat in silence. Waiting.

After some time, the door opened, and Headmaster Ozpin walked in. He seemed…tired.

"Thank you all for coming." He said, which Ruby found odd, they hadn't been given a choice, or at least how they'd been told hadn't made it seem like it. "What I'm about to say to you…it isn't pleasant, and it will inevitably lead to hard choices. So… I'll give you a chance now to leave, no questions asked, and no judgment."

Ruby looked around to see both her team and team JNPR sitting stoically, almost stiffly. No one got up or moved. She turned to look back at the Headmaster.

"Sir." She said, somewhat meekly, "What is this about?"

Ozpin sighed, "You are all close friends with Thor Odinson." He said and walked over to the classroom projector. "Something has come to light about Mr. Odinson, and it is…not good." He hit a button, and a document came up on the projector. Ruby started to read it but was distracted by Ozpin speaking. "He is from Atlas and is…not well."

"In what way?" Blake asked, and Ruby looked to her and saw she wasn't looking at the document but rather right at Ozpin.

"He…"Ozpin began gesturing at the board with the projected image. "Has some form of psychosis, delusions and some other issues." He started changing slides to show more information and pictures of Thor during his treatment. And one video of his raving like a lunatic on a bed, restrained with straps.

Ruby looked back at the image and started reading what she now recognized as a medical workup sheet. "He's…" she muttered to herself.

"Crazy?" Nora said with her usual tact, and Ruby's heart sank.

"Not well." Ozpin corrected."He is a remarkable individual, there is no denying it, but he's also not well, he needs help, and that is why I've asked you all here." Ruby watched as he massaged the bridge of his nose in a clear sign of stress. "We'll set up a situation where he is away from the school with all of you, and we hope you can convince him to submit to treatment." He looked at Ruby as he finished speaking, and she felt like she was going to be sick.

"So…what is your plan?" Jaune stuttered out.

"We'll send you all on a mission to the same forest you had your initiation." Ozpin said, "Once away from the school, you will tell him what you know and offer him a chance for help. Should he accept, it will end there. If not, well, you will have to take him in. For your sake, this will be a "weaponless" mission so he won't have his equipment, but you all will."

Ruby felt like she'd been poleaxed. Thor was…she didn't want to say crazy, but…he seemed so normal. Well not normal, but he was…he was Thor.

Her eyes started to fog over, and she knuckled the tears away. She…loved him. But he was sick, and she wanted to help him. This might be the best way, get him to someone who could help him. She felt someone rubbing her back and knew it was Yang.

"So…" She said, looking at Ozpin, "How do we…do this?"

* * *

Jaune

The plan was set for the weekend, and Jaune hated it. Thor had been like a brother to him, and now he felt like he was betraying him. But he was sick, he needed help. And this might be the only way to keep him out of an Atlas prison. He apparently stole prototype weapons data when he had his last breakdown, and that at least explained his weapon's system and why it was so different from anything he'd seen before.

But even without it, he was strong and skilled. He'd helped Jaune improve greatly over the time they'd known each other.

And he didn't seem insane, eccentric maybe, but not insane. But he'd looked at the file's, and they told a different story.

He just wished this hadn't happened.

He also thought of Ruby, who was likely in total distress over this. Her boyfriend was a mental patient, and she was going to have to try and convince him to get help. They all were. What concerned him more than anything is how Thor would react when confronted. Jaune didn't know a great deal about mental health issues, other than some vague information he just picked up over the years from various sources.

The only thing he knew for a fact in this situation was that he didn't know how Thor would react. He knew Thor well enough to think there could be a fight, and that wasn't a fun idea. Even without his gear, he was still strong and highly skilled, and his semblance wasn't anything to sneeze at either.

Jaune had a feeling if it came to having to subdue him, he'd be almost useless, Thor was the one who trained him, he knew him all too well.

But maybe he'd come quietly, and they were his friends. He'd have to know they only wanted to help him. Except…he wasn't well. He might have a total break down.

In all this, he was trying to come up with a better plan to handle this than what they'd been told to do. The only thing was that he didn't have the whole picture. He had a distinct feeling they didn't have all the information, and maybe that was out of respect for Thor, and they hadn't been told more than they needed to be convinced of the situation.

But this was just a complete nightmare of a situation.

* * *

Yang

As if she didn't have enough emotional turmoil in her life, she now had to add in the fact her sister was dating a criminally insane man, who she had the hots for, and they were tasked with getting him to come in for help. She didn't know what she'd been expecting during her first year here, but a scenario even remotely like this wasn't it. She'd expected danger, sure, but not this type of emotional stress.

She didn't liked the plan at all, Ozpin was more or less having them spring an intervention on him, and possibly have to arrest him if he didn't comply.

She didn't understand how this was the best way to go about, more or less ambushing him in the woods. It told her something at least that she thought Ozpin was reasonably confident this was going to turn into a fight and wanted Thor away from his equipment and the other students if that happened. But why they had to do it…, it felt so underhanded. He trusted them, so his guard would be down.

As if she didn't feel terrible enough about betraying her sister, now Thor was going more than likely be supremely pissed at them all. But he was sick, he needed help.

That part at least made this all…at least well-intentioned. But that was the other thing, she was having an incredibly hard time thinking of Thor as sick…he seemed…not normal, but he didn't seem crazy either.

And he was… a good guy. What made this all worse was that they all genuinely liked the guy, and he'd been helpful to at least Jaune, Ruby, and Pyrrha.

But it was hard to argue the facts put before her. They'd have to try to talk to him and failing that…restrain him. The plan was simple enough, and it would give them the advantage if it came to a fight. Even then, Thor was stubborn, if he chose to fight…it was going to get ugly.

She just hoped Thor would listen to reason.

* * *

Thor

The mission had his wind up, for whatever reason it made the hair on his neck stand up. He didn't know why, but the sense of dread made him worry, for himself and the others. The others also seemed upset by something, did they have the same sense of doom?

Ruby wasn't talking to him more than a few words, and the others didn't seem to want to speak at all. This was supposed to be a "semblance training" mission, which called for no equipment, and Thor would oblige to the spirit of the exercise, but he'd still wear his harness, and with it, he could call his maul.

He'd keep this from going poorly if he could help it.

As they landed in the forest of their initiation, Thor looked around to scan the environment for danger, but his companions didn't seem as concerned as the Bullhead flew away. It was later in the day, and dark clouds covered the sky as if warning him of something.

As he scanned the tree line of the clearing for Grimm, he saw none. "Okay." He said to the assembled group, "No Grimm in the area, we should start with…" He heard the grinding of metal on metal and turned to see several of his friends with their weapons, despite this being a non-weapon exercise. They all looked so grim and serious, he immediately knew something was wrong.

"Thor." Ruby's voice broke as she spoke. "We…we know."

"Know what?" Thor said, clenching his fist and his heart starting to race.

"You're sick." Jaune cut in "You need help." The boy's voice wasn't breaking like Ruby's, but he sounded desperate

"Sick?" Now Thor was confused. "What…who's told you what?"

"We've seen your medical files, man." Jaune said, now sound close to panic, "We know…we know where you're from and…man you need to listen, you need help, we want to help you."

"What have you heard!" Thor now yelled and saw most of them flinch back.

"You…"Blake started, "You think you're…you think you're a god or an ancient hero." She said, "You've…stolen military secrets."

"Lies!" Thor now shouted, and he saw all of them drop into a ready stance. "You've all been deceived!" He pointed to Blake as he spoke. "Who feed you these lies!"

"Thor!" Pyrrha shouted, "You're sick…please, let us help you!"

"I don't need help!" His blood boiled, he'd walked into a trap, and it was from those he considered friends. "You've all been tricked and now what!" His eyes moved to their weapons "You'll fight me? Arrest me!"

"Thor..please." Ruby near cried, and Thor looked into her eyes, and…his heart sank, tears filled her eyes, but her weapon was ready. His heart broke here, and he wished he could spare her this.

"Ruby…you'll do what you think you must, and I will do what I must." He raised his hand over his head.

* * *

Weiss

For a moment she thought Thor was raising his arms in surrender. Only to hear the whistling of something traveling through the air, and suddenly saw his maul slam into his hand as he caught it.

The stolen weapon landed in his hand, and she felt a sense of dread. He pulled his jacket off to reveal his battle harness. He was ready to fight…was he suspecting this?

No…he couldn't have, but still…this just became a much harder issue.

She hadn't come across anything like Thor's weapons in her research, but that didn't mean they weren't Atlas hardware. Secret files wouldn't have been easily accessed, but still, it was odd she didn't find any references to at least similar equipment tested.

But these thoughts vanished as Thor stood before them all ready to fight. This had not been in the plan. But they were in for a fight now, and all they could do now is try.

* * *

Blake

As the maul landed in his hand, Blake knew this wasn't going to be an easy fight. They hadn't expected him to be armed. But besides that, they didn't want to fight him or hurt him.

How tenderly he had treated her, knowing her heritage, he was kind and understandings. He helped her and didn't pushed her or mind.

Now…she needed to help him. He was sick, he needed treatment and help.

She just wished it didn't had to come to this. But he was a danger to himself if he didn't received proper help.

But As she looked at him, with lightning arcing off him, she started to wonder vaguely if he was really delusional.

* * *

Thor

The first three attacks he received were from Nora, launching three grenades at him. They didn't land directly, but around him with the blasts and shrapnel peppering him. He saw through the smoke Nora bearing down on him, her hammer raised to strike him. He slipped the hit and struck her in the stomach with his own hammer sending her to the tree line.

Ren came next, shooting him with his SMGs before switching to his close-range weapons to slice at him, this time he struck him with lighting, causing him to double over.

Thor threw his maul into the air to move from the immediate area. He felt guilt over striking his friends, but he wasn't going to be put away due to them being tricked. By that same notion, however, he wasn't going to hurt them if he could avoid it.

Before he could even clear the tree line, he was pulled back to earth, and he knew this was Pyrrha. He crashed into the ground, and the force dug a small trench in it.

Rolling to his feet, he was facing Jaune, who looked him dead in the eye.

"Thor...please we are trying to help!"

Thor didn't response but rushed forward and ducked under Jaune's counter-attack and hooked his leg with the blade of his ax and sent him to the ground.

Before he could turn, he was hit again, this time he felt flames covering him. He guessed Weiss had used her semblance with fire dust. He turned and soon realized he was engulfed in fire and called a small localized rain shower to quench the fire. He could smell hair burned and the scent of burning flesh.

The cooling rain caused the burning to stop, but he was undoubtedly damaged from it.

He heard someone, he thought it was Ruby, shouting in concern over the tactic used. He looked around to see himself surrounded.

"Thor." One of them called "Please…you're hurt!"

"I will not be carted off like an animal!" He yelled, "You are all fools to fall for this treachery!"

He spun his maul to charge the environment with his semblance. The winds picked up, and lightning arced around them.

But something hit him from his right, and at that moment, he realized his right eye had closed from the burns, and someone had blindsided him and sent him to the ground.

He rolled to see Yang bearing down on him, ready for another punch, but he raised his foot kicking her in the stomach, with lightning arcing off the kick. He rolled to his feet and knew now that this was past the point of talking.

Throwing his hammer forward he rushed Weiss, the first one he saw once he was back on his feet. She tried to make a counter-attack, but he ducked under and grabbed her ankle and threw her into the air and struck her with his maul.

No sooner he was hit again, someone else bulldozing into him. Yang or Nora, they were the only two strong enough and bold enough to try such an attack. The next strike told him it was Nora, her hammer was distinct compared to Yang's fist.

He couldn't hit her with lighting, it would make her stronger, so he turned and punched her between the eyes stunning her for a moment while it disrupted her vision, then he brought the hammerhead of his maul onto her head sending her to the ground.

He raised his maul again only to feel it come out of his hand and looked to see Pyrrha using her semblance to pull it out of his hand, and striking him with her shield in the temple. He turned with the blow and, instead of moving away, stepped into her attack and drove his shoulder into her chest, throwing her away from him.

"You fools!" he yelled, "Forget this madness, and no one will get hurt!" He called his maul back to his hand and spun and batted away another attacker, this time Blake, who had tried to sneak up on him, but he knew far more stealthy people in his time, and she wasn't as unseen as she thought she was.

Someone hit him from behind this time, and he knew it was Yang. Instead of striking him, she wrapped her arms around his torso and tackled him to the ground. Before he knew it, two more were on him. Nora and Jaune, he guessed from what he saw and felt.

"Thor!" This time Yang yelled, "Please! You need help!"

"Traitors!" he yelled as he fought against them.

"Please!" She yelled again.

"Traitors!" he yelled again, still pushing the shoving against them as he felt more people pile on him.

"Thor…please…do not make us hurt you!" This time it was Ruby yelling, and his heart ached at it, but at this point, they were trying to stop him and whatever his father had planned for him was at risk. He couldn't fail here.

"TRAITORS!" He yelled at the top of lungs, calling lighting to throw them off him and raising into the air.

* * *

Ruby

As she saw Thor throw Yang, Nora, Jaune, Blake, and Pyrrha off him with a massive crack of lighting, she felt tears running down her cheek.

Thor was not listening and was now out of control. Nora jumped right up and rushed Thor only to be batted away by Thor as he rose in the air.

"You have all chosen this path!" He yelled, "You all know me, and what this brought, you've brought this on yourselves!"

"Thor!" She called to him, and he looked at her. She saw his face clearly now. His hair was gone from Weiss's attack, and his right eye was closed from blistering, and all his facial hair was gone. He looked so different, yet he was still Thor. "Please! You need help!" She didn't know how many times one of them had yelled this at him, but it seemed like all she could say.

He landed on the ground, looking at her. He was breathing heavily, and she couldn't tell what he was thinking. He seemed like he was lowering his maul, but soon, he launched himself towards her. She raised Crescent Rose in a defensive posture to deflect the attack, unwilling to attack him. But he didn't hit her with his maul but shoved her aside with his hand, and he passed her on her right, missing her, or so she thought.

As she rolled to keep an eye on him, she saw him severing the head of a large Ursa. He'd pushed her away from it, and she hadn't even noticed it.

Grimm…of course they'd be drawn near her with everything going on.

Thor finished the Ursa and moved onto a Beowulf, only for him to jump away from a field of ice that sprung up like spears. Ruby looked to see Weiss only for a moment later for her to turn away an attack from another Beowulf.

A storm of fire rained down from the sky, and she saw several Bullheads, air cover. She knew this was likely, but she hadn't thought of it.

Atlas and Vale military were here for support, keeping the Grimm away.

But all she could think was…Thor had saved her. Even as they attacked him. Even if he was sick…he was still…Thor.

She dropped Crescent Rose and dropped to her knees. This was beyond her. Thor…she loved him…and she couldn't hurt him, even if it was for his own good.

* * *

Yang

Thor had tossed them all off as they had tried to tie him down before he had thrown them with his lighting.

The gunships came into handle the Grimm, she hadn't known they were coming but was grateful for them nonetheless.

But Thor…he was out of control. He had hit her at least with some strong hits. Ruby was the only one who hadn't been hit, and Yang didn't know if that was because Ruby hadn't engaged or if Thor was leaving her alone.

But Thor calling them all "traitors" had hurt…badly.

But he needed help, and if she had to beat him into submission to do it, she'd do it. Launching herself at him again, she rabbit punched him while he was looking somewhere else. He was knocked to the ground and skidded along with it for some distance while she chased after him only to have him roll onto his back and striking her with his hammer, lightning arcing off it and sending her flying.

As she tumbled through the air, she spotted Nora bringing her own hammer down onto Thor's stomach. Thor cried out from the hit, but Nora didn't let him regain his breath and started to literally hammer him into the ground. Thor had hit her with his lighting, and she was supercharged from it. How Thor had made that mistake, she didn't know, but he probably hadn't realized she was in the dogpile.

Then a loud thunderclap nearly blew her eardrums out, and she saw Nora hold her hands over her ears, her weapon on the ground and Thor following up with a strike from the ax on his maul. Nora skidded along the ground, and Thor regained his composure.

As Thor caught his breath, a shield, Pyrrha's, came out of what seemed like nowhere and caught him square in the temple.

Thor shouted in rage and started to spin his maul and slowly began to rise into the air. This was new.

* * *

Ozpin

"Headmaster," Goodwitch said from his rear "This is cruel…let the Atlas troops step in…or at least allow me to…"

"No." He said looking at the monitor as he watched teams JNPR and RWBY try to subdue Thor. "This is an important milestone for them."

"What is that!" She nearly yelled. "Fighting a friend? How often will they have to do that?"

"I mean emotionally." He said, "The fear, the sorrow, they will have to cope with these things in the field someday."

"Is that your pretense then?" She said. She clearly didn't buy it, and he didn't need her to, because when it came down to it, she wouldn't push the issue.

The truth was, he didn't trust anyone else to not actually take things to far and actually kill Thor. He had an extremely valuable piece of military hardware and the blueprints hidden somewhere, not to mention at least a working knowledge of it. Granted he hadn't planned of Thor actually being armed, but that made his choice even more critical.

He hadn't told Glynda, but he'd proposed to Ironwood that the teachers would handle it, but Ironwood had insisted that any actual Huntsman involved would need Atlas military specialist to accompany them. Ironwood was a good man, but all it would take is one of them to be given order from the higher up to kill him.

This was the most controlled option he could come up with with the time table he had. It had been apparent if he hadn't offered a solution, Atlas would have simply acted, the only thing that had kept them from doing so so far was the idea of an international incident.

But what he was watching was not at all pleasant. Thor was proving a match for all eight of his classmates, although from how he looked at how they were doing, he was clearly on the bad end of things. Mostly from miss Schnee with a surprisingly brutal and effective attack near the start of the fight.

But now Thor was rising in the air, the disks on his belt and vest glowing. There was something uniquely Thor about this weapon. He was mixing the dust with his semblance, something he knew Thor could do but hadn't seen in action in a proper fight yet. The wind around the fight was wiping and seemed to burn, fire dust in the wind, this was not good.

* * *

Jaune

Thor had walloped him good, and he was just now getting his bearings. The air was getting hot, and it took him a moment to realize it was Thor, in the air using his semblance with the dust in his equipment. He was making a firestorm.

Jaune tried to think of a way to stop him, but all their frontal assaults had failed. Taking his hammer away wouldn't work, he'd just call it back, so long as he had that harness on, he couldn't be disarmed. Then it occurred to him.

He started looking around and spotted Ruby and ran over to her.

"Ruby!"

She turned to look at him, "Jaune…he's."

"Ruby." He said pointing to Thor, "We need you to use your semblance."

"It won't do any good, he'll just."

"Don't go for him, take his belt."

"Huh?"

"His hammer has a safety device in it to keep anyone from lifting it who isn't wearing his harness, if we takes one piece of his harness out, he won't be able to use his weapon."

"But he'll see me."

"Let me handle that, just take your shot when you get the chance."

With that, Jaune ran off.

* * *

Thor

"I warned you all!" He shouted, now in a total rage from the pain of his injuries and the betrayal of his friends. He wouldn't kill them, but he wouldn't allow himself to be taken either. He hadn't talked about his godhood since he came to this world, for this very reason.

Someone who knew who he was was at work here, and they were trying to sabotage him.

"Thor!" someone yelled, and he felt a grenade detonate on him. Turning in the air, he saw Jaune with Nora's grenade launcher in hand.

"You will taste the fire of Muspelheim for that you turncoat!"

"You are going to burn us all alive!"

"You'll live." He shouted, still spinning his hammer, "But you won't lay your hands on me again."

Seems like an abrupt change between these two sentences. Is that intentional?

Changing his mind on the storm, he instead threw his maul at Jaune, pulling himself along. The instant he started to move a red blur flashed past him, and he felt something run down his back, and while he was still flying towards Jaune, he felt a total lack of control. Jaune raised his shield at an angle, and the maul deflected off at an angle, dragging him along the ride.

The hand strap was pulled so tightly he couldn't free himself, he was on an utterly uncontrolled flight and couldn't free himself from it.

* * *

Ruby

As the belt fell away, she watched as Thor flew through the air and deflected off Jaune's shield. Even though it was just a glancing blow, it still drove Jaune to the ground, and Thor flew through the air, then started to drop and seemed to skip like a stone would on a lake.

As she dropped to the ground, she thought the fight was over, but they needed to get to him and make sure he was okay.

No one said anything as they ran after him, but some were still clearly ready for the fight.

He wasn't hard to follow, he'd left serious marks in the forest.

The first thing she saw when they found him was that he was on his knees looking at the ground. Just as they arrived, it started to rain.

His maul lay next to him, but he looked…so defeated.

"Thor…" She said as she approached him, but a hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

"Ruby don't go near him." it was Yang.

She shrugged her sister's hand off her shoulder.

Thor looked at her, and his skin was blistered, his right eye was swollen shut, all the hair on his head was burned off, his jaw looked like it might be broken or dislocated and his right arm was clearly broken.

"Ruby." He said, blood trickling out of his mouth as he spoke.

Ruby suddenly realized that for as bad as Thor looked, none of the rest of them had more than minor bruises. He'd kept himself from hurting them, and they hadn't offered him the same courtesy.

"Thor…I'm sorry…." She was crying now, "But you need help."

"No…I'm sorry." He said, looking at the ground, his voice trembled "For hurting you."

"What do you mean? You didn't even touch me."

"Not for this." He mumbled.

"Thor…, you need help, please, they're coming to get you, don't fight them, they'll take care of you." She felt a shiver run down her spine in the rain, "Come on, and let's get out of this rain, it's cold." She said, hoping he'd pick up on her joke.

He did, "How can the rain be cold?" He said with the vaguest hint of a laugh.

She hugged him, she didn't care he was sick, she didn't even care if he was delusional. He was still Thor. He wrapped his good arm around her and whispered "I'm sorry…for everything."

Lights from the bullheads started flashing over then, and Ruby knew that this was finally over.


	11. Chapter 11

AN: Okay, so this one took a bit longer, because it is a bit longer, also some technical difficulties.

Thanks to hammerstorm for beta reading.

* * *

Thor

The cell was circular, with clear glass on all sides, allowing his captors to see him at all times. He didn't know where he was, but he was heavily bandaged. He still couldn't see out of his right eye, and his right arm was in a cast.

"Thor…are you ready to talk?" It was Ozpin.

Thor didn't say anything. He just stared at the floor.

"I know you're…unhappy, but trust me, you'll be safe here from Atlas prosecution." He said, " Do you still have the blueprints?"

Thor just kept his eyes on the ground. This had been going on for a few days, and he had an idea of what had occurred, or at least the other's thought they knew.

He was "insane" and had stolen classified military technology from Atlas.

It was all a trick of some unknown force, they had turned his friends and allies against him and had him locked away.

How they'd managed it, he didn't know, but he didn't care right now. He was in pain, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

He turned in his cell to face away from Ozpin.

"Thor…I'm sorry, but you need."

"No." Thor cut him off "What I need is for you to leave me alone. You've been played like a pawn, and don't even know it."

"Thor…I know you believe that, but…". He trailed off and didn't finish. "I'll let you rest."

With that, Ozpin left, and Thor was alone again.

"Father…" He muttered tears filling his eyes, "Father…why have you abandoned me?"

* * *

Ozpin

Thor wasn't at all cooperative. People had been in to examine him and run tests on him, and he wasn't showing any of the typical signs of psychosis. He never denied the stories he'd told, or at least what was in the files, but he also wasn't talking much at all.

Several of his friends had requested to see him, but at this time, he didn't feel that was a good idea. Things were still too fresh, and he thought it would be counterproductive for now. Maybe once the injuries healed, he might allow it.

Atlas had taken the hammer and harness, disabling the safety feature. What they hadn't known was that Ozpin had made sure to copy the equipment and was now trying to replicate it. It was merely to good of an opportunity to waste, and any advantage was welcome.

He didn't have the blueprints, but before he'd handed it over, he'd examined it as much as he could, and he thought he could replicate it.

And if Thor ever got himself together, he might even be able to wield it again.

* * *

Ruby

As Ruby lay in her bed, she hadn't felt this bad…ever. It had been a few days since the whole ordeal, and she not only felt horrible but was confused. What had Thor meant by "Everything" he'd done? He hadn't hurt her except that one time he sort of broke up with her.

But as she thought on the whole ordeal more, she understood this to be a "break-up" in a fashion. They weren't going to be seeing each other in any real degree for some time.

"Ruby." Yang's voice called into the dorm.

"Yeah?"

Her sister came in and closed the dorm behind her. "Can we talk?"

Ruby didn't answer but shrugged and climbed down to talk to her sister.

Yang looked at her, and she could tell her sister was upset, nervous even.

"It's..about Thor…from before."

"Yeah…"

"Well…remember when we went into the city together?"

* * *

Blake

After everything that had happened with Thor, Blake had decided to take a few days off of class. None of the teacher's had objected after what had happened. Ruby had been the only other one to do so, which Blake had found surprising. It was a huge drain mentally and emotionally, but almost everyone else seemed like they wanted to just act like nothing had changed.

But everything had changed, they'd fought, and pretty severely hurt, a friend. On her part, she'd felt like she'd betrayed him more than most. He'd kept her secret and helped hide it when it came to it, and she'd helped arrest him.

He needed help, that was true but that didn't change how bad she felt over it.

As she made her way back to her dorm, she saw Ruby storming down the hall. She raised her hand to wave, but Ruby didn't look at her and stomped past. It was clear something was upsetting her, more than just the recent events. Blake considered going after her but thought better of it. She didn't have the energy to handle it at any rate, and as irritated as Ruby looked, some time to cool down may be in order.

Walking into their dorm, she felt the atmosphere change. Yang was sitting on her bed, face in her hands.

"Yang?"

"Blake…I've messed it all up."

"What 'all'?"

"With my sister," Yang said, looking up from her hands.

"What happened?" This was…disconcerting. With everything that happened with Thor and her own generalized sense of worry over being discovered, the idea of an internal dilemma with her team just made things feel a thousand times worse.

"I just…"

"Maybe you should start from the beginning."

Yang's armed flopped down to her side and let out a long sigh. "You remember when I went with Thor into the city, right before Torchwick caught Ruby?"

"Yes…not easy to forget that whole incident." Her ears twitched at this, and she wasn't exactly sure why. Just a general sense that something unpleasant was about to come up.

"Well…I sort of…got drunk…and…slept with Thor."

The bottom of Blake's stomach fell out at this. "And…that's what you just told Ruby?"

Yang didn't say anything, just nodded.

"Yang…" She began, "That's…what were you thinking?"

"I wasn't!" She yelled back, "We were drunk! And…you've seen him…he's…"

"Yeah I get the picture, but Yang… you know this isn't going to… why did you think now was a good time to tell her?"

"I just wanted to get it over with!" She shouted "I was going to wait till after the dance, but with Thor being a nutcase, sort seemed like… I should just…"

"Yang… you just piled a whole bunch of other things onto her, when she, and all of us, are super stressed out."

"I know!" Yang said, this time much quieter and almost seething, "I just…couldn't keep it in anymore, it was torture Blake."

That was when Blake noticed the tears running down her partner's face. "Yang."

She walked closer to her partner and thought she smelled alcohol.

But before she knew what was happening, Yang was right in front of her.

In an instant, Yang pulled her into a deep kiss, and Blake was stunned and didn't do anything for a moment.

Then she pushed Yang off her.

"Yang! What the hell!?"

"I'm sorry!" Yang yelled, "I just…I don't know…I just wanted someone to…"

Blake could taste what she thought was whiskey on her mouth "Have you been drinking?"

Yang looked at the floor, and that told Blake everything she needed to know.

"Yang, you can't just drink when you have problems…" she watched as her partner dropped onto the floor. "Do you need help with…this?"

"No," Yang said quickly. "I just…need to relax. I've been stressed lately."

"Stress is a part of life, Yang please, don't…make this a habit."

"I don't, I won't, it's just hard."

Blake put her hand on Yang's shoulder because she understood that this wasn't an easy time for her. "Yang…we're here for you." Yang gripped her hand.

"I know…I just…wish all of this hadn't happened."

"I know." Blake said, "We all do."

* * *

Weiss

The library was quiet, and that was the way she liked it best…most of the time. But now her thoughts wouldn't settle, and she couldn't concentrate on anything she was trying to study. The memory of that night was still too fresh in her mind. What kept creeping into her mind was the smell of burning hair and skin.

She felt terrible over what she'd done. She hadn't intended to actually burn Thor, his aura should have protected him from that attack, the fact it went straight through it didn't make any sense. Thor wasn't someone to let his guard drop like that. And it was inconceivable that she'd made an error in her calculations.

Something else had happened, some unknown variable she didn't know about. She'd researched it or attempted to, but she couldn't concentrate. The whole ordeal, from her own research on him to the entire debacle where Thor had been detained, she couldn't think straight.

The dreams were the worst part of it, in them, she could smell Thor burning, and even when she woke up, it didn't go away right away.

She wasn't the only one who was feeling the strain of it all. Everyone involved had been drastically affected by it. Fighting Grimm or criminals was different from a friend. She'd never admit it out loud, but she liked Thor. Not how Ruby did, but…he was likable in a bombastic way that she didn't usually like, but something about him made her forget that. He was irritating at times, he was loud, cocky, and had horrendous table manners. But he was also brave, kind, and sincere.

The fact that her own suspicions had been proven correct, in a fashion, was not much consolation.

"Weiss?" A voice whispered behind her, making her almost jump out of her chair. Turning she saw Ruby, looking like she'd lived a life of misery.

"Ruby…what wrong?"

"Everything!" Ruby said in the cracking voice as she sat down across from her.

"Okay…can you be more specific?"

"Yang slept with Thor!"

Weiss felt like her stomach had dropped out of her, that wasn't at all what she was expecting to hear.

"Come on, let's go somewhere more private."Weiss grabbed Ruby's wrist and lead her out of the library.

Truth be told, she didn't know where to go, the dorm was out, she had no ideas were Yang or Blake was, and she didn't think running into Yang was a good idea right now. Eventually, they ended up on the roof, and Weiss sat Ruby down."Okay…so what happened?"

Now Ruby had tears running down her face and was knocking them away. "Remember when they went into the city?"

"Yes…they stayed overnight…."She trailed off. "Ruby…I'm sorry…I'm sure they didn't mean…"

"But they did Weiss!" She shouted, and Weiss recoiled at the sudden temper, "My sister and my boyfriend! I don't care it was an accident or that they were drunk! They still did it!"

Drinking…of course, Weiss knew firsthand how alcohol could ruin people. She wanted Ruby to calm down but knew telling her so would likely have the opposite effect.

"Ruby…just try…"She floundered for a moment before settling on, " try to breathe." Ruby started to take quick, shallow breaths and while she didn't seem to be calming down, it at least kept her occupied. "Okay, now deeper and slower." And to her surprise, she did slowing down her breaths. "I know…this is…devastating."

"A little bit, yeah!" Ruby said between breaths.

Weiss honestly didn't know what else to say. She had no clue how to navigate this scenario.

In an act of instinct, she grabbed her partner… her friend, and pulled her into a hug.

She surprised herself in this act, she was never this expressive physically, but it felt right…and needed.

Ruby didn't say anything at first and didn't react at all at first. Then she wrapped her arms around Weiss.

"What did I do wrong?" Ruby whispered, in a sobbing voice.

Weiss felt like she was punched in the chest at that question. It was…such an innocent stance to take on the situation, she knew because for years she'd wondered the same thing with her parents. To put the blame on yourself instead of the actual guilty parties.

"Ruby…" Weiss pulled away to look Ruby in the eye "You…didn't do anything wrong." Ruby sniffed and knuckled her eyes. "You..can't control what other people do…I know it's…hard to…handle…but you can't blame yourself."

"But…I…"

"No Ruby…they messed up…not you. Be mad, be sad, be whatever, but don't blame yourself for what they did."

Ruby was now sobbing completely, and Weiss helped her to sit down.

After several minutes Ruby started to calm down enough to speak. "I want to be mad…but…she's my sister, and he's…after what we did to him, I feel so bad about what we did."

"Ruby…" Weiss started "It's okay to be mad at people you care about…love. Loving them doesn't give them the right to…hurt you."

"Your pretty smart, huh?" Ruby said, with a slight laugh.

"Just…personal experience," Weiss said. "But you should at least talk to Yang…she's your sister, and that besides you can't avoid her. We're a team, and you…we all need to try and work this out, or we're done for."

"I know you're right," Ruby said, drying her tears with her cape, "I just…wish none of this had ever happened."

"Me too, Ruby." Weiss said, "Me too."

* * *

Ozpin

"Are you ready to talk today, Mr. Odinson?" Ozpin said outside Thor's cell. Thor just looked at the ground and kept silent. The passing days hadn't done anything to make him open up. He hoped to pick his brain on his equipment, which was more complicated than he'd initially thought, and his cooperation might be helpful in that regard.

That aside, he wasn't responding to therapy.

"Thor, we can't help you if you don't talk."

"I don't need help." Ozpin was taken aback by how rough his voice sounded, he didn't know if it was from not talking or if it was damaged in his fight. "You've all been deceived."

"Well, if we have," Ozpin said, hoping to keep him talking. "Maybe you could help us."

"Don't patronize me." Thor said, glaring at him with his one good eye, "Doom is coming, and you've focused your effort on the wrong target."

Ozpin didn't know why, but Thor's word unnerved him. "Well, maybe you can help." He said, "I've tried to replicate your weapons, but there are…something I don't understand with them, if you help me, maybe we can get your weapons back, once you've recovered."

Ozpin felt dirty doing this, but he wasn't lying. Once Thor got better, he'd more than willingly let him return to school. It was just a matter of finding the right medicine and therapy options. And if he could get Thor to help with reconstructing his equipment, then it would be all the better.

"Why should I help you, traitor?" Thor said with unusual venom in his voice.

Well, now it was time to play his last card. "If you cooperate, you would receive certain privileges."

"I have no love of comfort." He said.

"Maybe not." Ozpin said, "But you do want to see your friends."

Thor looked up at this. "You mean visitation rights."

"It could be arranged if you start to cooperate."

"Hmph, I don't think they'd be too eager to see me."

"Now Thor, they did this to help you, if you had just…"

Thor stood up suddenly and stared Ozpin in the eye, and for the first time in countless lifetimes, he felt like a child. At that moment Thor's face seemed to change from an eighteen-year-old boy into something older, ageless even. It was there and gone in a moment, but Thor still shouted at him.

"They turned on me! They were deceived and either you were as well, or you are part of this!"

Electricity started to spark off of Thor, and Ozpin regained his composure.

"Thor, remember if your heart rate gets too high, you'll have to be sedated."

Thor slammed his fist on the glass, "You think I can't see what you are!" He shouted. "You are an old man and a fool!"

Ozpin was taken aback and shaken by this, but the alarms were blaring. Gas was pumped into the cell, and Thor started to stumble and eventually collapsed to the ground. Once he was down, orderlies came into the cell and put Thor in his bed.

"Well," Ozpin said to himself. "I'll have to talk to him again tomorrow."

That had been…disturbing. The look in Thor's eyes and what he'd said. He'd made him feel like a child, which was…a surprising feat.

He'd have to try and talk to Thor again. Thor may…know more than he'd given him credit for.

* * *

Yang

She couldn't believe how she was acting. She wasn't in control of herself, what she'd tried with Blake, that was beyond stupid. She didn't know what she was thinking…well she did, she wasn't.

This was a problem she'd had for…years. Emotional reactions rather than thought out actions. She didn't even like Blake like that…well not as strongly as she did others…. She did like Blake…maybe more than a friend…. But making a move on her…in the whole climate was incredibly stupid. The fact she'd taken a few knocks of liquid courage to talk to her sister hadn't improved her decision-making skills.

But Blake was her partner and teammate. This wasn't ideal for the team dynamic, her sister was already mad at her now she'd made it incredibly awkward with her and Blake.

Her impulse control was always worse when she was under stress, she'd do things she didn't even want to do..or maybe she did but would have handled them with more tact. The drinking didn't help, and there had been far too much of that lately as well. She knew it ran in the family, but she never thought she had a problem…until now, or really ever since the whole incident with Thor. She needed to stop that as well.

A knock on the door broke her bout of self-hate.

"Yang?"

It was Ruby, and as much as Yang wanted to bolt, she'd put off the whole thing for far too long already.

"Yeah, Ruby." She paused, "Come in."

The door creaked opened, and Ruby timidly walked in.

"Yang…I…it's just."

"Ruby…" She cut her off "I know your mad…I'm mad at myself." Ruby just stood there looking at her. "Thor thought we should have told you as soon as it happened…I just wanted to…pretend it didn't happen."

"Yang…"Ruby said, "You're my sister, and I love you. But…I don't think I can forgive this…right away."

Yang felt a pang in her chest over this, and while she'd expected this…it didn't stop the pain.

"Ruby…I know you're hurt. But we have to."

"No, Yang, I don't have to do anything." Ruby cut her off with a viciousness in her voice that was so uncharacteristic of her sweet little sister Yang felt like her heart stopped. "I didn't get drunk and sleep with my sister's boyfriend! I didn't keep it a secret for weeks! I'm not the one decided the best time to finally tell her sister was after a knock down drag out fight where said boyfriend had to be committed to a mental asylum!"

In her shock, Yang felt herself become angry, "Thor!"

"If he were here I'd be yelling at him to! But we beat the hell out of him and had him committed, so I'm not going to be talking to him for a while anyway!"

At that, Yang saw tears streaming from her sister's eyes.

She jumped up and hugged her, and at first, Ruby fought her but eventually embraced her back and started crying.

"I'm so…sorry." Was all she could say.

* * *

Thor

Time seemed to pass both in leaps and crawls. He didn't really feel like he was fully aware of how much time had passed in the cell. It might have been a few days or a couple months, their tendency to sedate him was messing with his ability to perceive time.

Ozpin had been in a few more times to see him, and Thor had agreed to at least help rebuild his equipment. It was something to do at least, and it may be useful to him when he got out.

But he felt like he was losing himself here and needed to have something to focus on. He had bad dreams, one that came every night was of him standing in a pool of water and voice calling to him from the shadows telling him something about Mimir and then the pool evaporated in a lightning storm. He always woke up then, and his right eye hurt, even though the burns on that side of his face had healed.

Then there was all the medicine they gave him, he was certain without his permission sometime, was making him lose days. He was being told about things he did, but couldn't recall saying. Ozpin had been asking questions he felt were leading, but they were about things he couldn't remember saying. It made him feel like Ozpin had some sort of secret. He'd always felt like the man was hiding something, in one of his blackouts he'd said something to rattle him.

This was the worst of all…he was worrying they might be right. His father didn't answer him, he couldn't call his hammer, and he was frail. Could he actually have imagined it all? That scared him, but at the same time, he didn't feel like it could possibly be true. All his memories seem so clear.

"Father…" he whispered to himself, "Father…please show me you can hear me." There was no reply, no sign. "Father…please."

"Are you having a bad day Mr. Odinson?" Ozpin's voice came from behind him.

"What is it, Ozpin?" Thor responded.

"Well, as we discussed, you've been cooperating, so I've arranged for some of your friends to visit if you up to it."

"Who wants to see me?"

"Ms. Schnee."

That got his attention, of all the friends he had, Weiss was probably the most emotionally reserved ."Why?"

"I couldn't say, but she came to ask me specifically to see you."

Thor remembered the burning and the smell of her attack, remembering the searing pain. While Weiss wasn't the one he wanted to see the most, it'd been so long since he'd spoken to anyone other than Ozpin, and he thought he needed to talk to someone, and he was an old hand at forgiveness, or at least he thought he was.

"Is she here?"

"If you'd like to see her."

"Send her in."

* * *

Weiss

She didn't know what she was doing here. But she felt guilty over what she'd done to Thor, and after talking to Ruby about what Thor and Yang had done, she wanted to both apologize to him, and in a weird way chew him out.

She'd spoken to the headmaster about possibly being able to talk to Thor. It had been several weeks before she'd been told she could.

She hadn't told anyone of her intentions. Ruby and Yang were in enough turmoil with each other, let alone trying to deal with Thor. Blake…was distant as usual, at least with her.

But as she walked down the corridor to where Thor was being held, she couldn't help but think this was more like a fortress than a mental health facility.

Once she saw where Thor was being held, she felt an odd sense of foreboding. The cell itself was larger than she expected, but it was in the center of a larger room and was a clear glass cylinder in the center. It was sparsely furnished, she saw a bed, a chair, and a desk, and a small bookshelf. The constant observation seemed like an odd choice for the situation, unless Thor was on suicide watch. That idea made her feel sick, but she pushed it down. Thor stood in the center, his back to her.

She walked up to the cell and found a chair waiting for her. She took a seat and looked up to see Thor standing in front of her, with the glass between them. It startled her, but she did her best to hide it. He looked…much better than when she'd last seen him. His hair was short, but growing back, and so was the beard. The burns seemed to have healed, and the only sign of injury was a bandage around the arm he broke when he fell.

"You look…good." She said, not sure what else to say.

Thor nodded, but his face was grim, which was incredibly disconcerting when she had known him as a smiling fool.

"Thank you for coming." He said, "I was starting to think my acquaintances had forgotten me."

She noted he didn't use the word "friends," and she was certain it was intentional.

"Thor…you have to know that…we didn't plan to fight you."

"I know. Why else would I be the only one told not to bring my gear?" He folded his arms, and Weiss was taking note of how big he was compared to her, especially while she was sitting.

"Thor…I'm sorry for what I did, I thought your Aura would have stopped the fire, I don't know why it went straight through."

Thor uncrossed his arms and sighed. He walked to his desk, retrieved the chair, and walked back to her. He set the chair down and sat, which Weiss took as a sign of him being more willing to talk on her level.

"That was my mistake." He said.

"How…I mean, we were just trying to…" she trailed off and realized she couldn't broach that subject without bringing up the fact they were trying to arrest him.

"I'll let you know something about my semblance." Thor said, "Despite what you've done, I don't believe we will come to blows again. You are misguided, not an enemy." Weiss bite her tongue to keep herself from responding to being "misguided" because she was curious about what he was talking about. "While I control the weather, my protective Aura weaken or even drops. I was trying to do too much, and my Aura wasn't up, that's why you hit me as hard as you did."

That wasn't exactly surprising, but she didn't know if she'd ever heard of a semblance behaving like that. Then there was the chance he was misleading her for whatever reason. But this did mean that the incident wasn't entirely her fault or Thor at least was letting her feel better. She appreciated it, whether that was his intention or not.

"Thor…I'm sorry, we all are it came to this."

"Well, at least you've come to see me, I'm surprised you were the first, I was expecting Ruby."

"Or Yang." Muttered to herself.

"What?"

Weiss hadn't realized she'd thought it out loud, but there wasn't much point in hiding the fallout, given she'd planned to talk to him about it anyway.

"We all…know what you and Yang did." She watched his face for change and though she saw his eyes narrow and the muscles around his mouth tense.

"Yang told you then." He ran his hand over his mouth as he spoke, muffling it slightly.

"Not exactly. She told Ruby, and Ruby told me. Then she told Blake, and I guess the rest of the student body found out after Ruby and Yang "discussed it" at full volume."

"It's for the best." He said, standing up from his chair. "Yang needed to get it out."

"Can I ask…why? I know you and Ruby weren't 'official,' but you both knew she liked you?"

"Why," Thor said the word like he was rolling it around his mouth, tasting it. "Why does anything happen?"

"Thor, please I don't want a philosophical vague answer, and neither does Ruby."

"We were drunk." He said, "We didn't plan it, it just happened. I know that's not a good reason, and I've felt a great deal of shame over it, but it is done, and I can't change."

Weiss didn't know what she was expecting, this more or less tallied with what Yang had said, but she was hoping for…she didn't know what. There wasn't anything that justified what happened, even being drunk didn't excuse it. But she knew that drinking made people…usually a worse version of themselves, at the very least made them make poor decisions.

But in all this, Thor didn't seem…insane. He hadn't before, but here, in the cell, he still seemed normal, by his standards at least. If he was getting treatment for a real condition, he should be…different in some way.

"Ruby and Yang. Thor, they aren't exactly fighting, but they are so cold to each other right now."

"Time." Thor said, "They will make up, I know something about forgiving siblings."

For the first time since, she came here, this seemed to indicate to her Thor might be delusional. He had no siblings, but one of his delusions involving some god that did have a brother. A trickster of some kind which, had it been just a story, would have been intriguing, but the fact it was just a sick friend's warped reality, just made it sad.

The sat in silence for a few minutes before Thor broke the silence.

"Has Jaune stopped bothering you?" Thor asked suddenly, changing the topic.

"Oh…well, yes." She said, combing her fingers through her hair to correct a flaw that wasn't there. She was somewhat grateful for the topic change, but this wasn't much of an improvement.

"While I have you, why did you constantly reject him? As persistent a fool he was, he wasn't trying to use you."

"I know, but he is just so…"

"Weak? Foolish? Annoying?" Thor suggest.

"Nice," Weiss said.

For the first time since she walked into the room, a shadow of a smile graced Thor's face. It vanished in an instant if it had ever been there.

"That is…not normally a complaint."Thor said.

"I know it's a stupid reason." She said, "But he's so…soft."

"But he is genuine and kind, and not so weak as when he first arrived."

"Well maybe, but he and Pyrrha are going to the dance together, and if they aren't 'official' by then, they will be after."

"So the fool finally took my advice."

"What does that mean?"

"I told him to ask Pyrrha to the dance some time ago."

Weiss was confused, "Then why ask me why I rejected him?"

"Curiosity." He said.

She felt her face flush. She didn't know why she told him any of this. Guilt maybe, over the whole incident, but it was more than that. Thor invited trust in his demeanor somehow.

She didn't know what else to talk about, but the lighter conversation of her social life seemed to ease the general atmosphere.

"Thor…I have to go. I'll…try to get the others to come and see you."

"If you could…I'd like to apologize to Ruby in person, but if she's unwilling to see me, tell her I'm sorry, do that for me, will you."

"I'll…yes, I can do that."

"Goodbye, Weiss."

"Goodbye, Thor."

With that, she got up and left.

* * *

Jaune

In the weeks following the "Thor" incident, things had changed, not just for him and his friends, but for the entire school.

The entire ordeal couldn't be kept quiet, and even if they could, the fact Thor was gone was something that wouldn't have gone unnoticed.

They were all treated in an odd mix of reverence and suspicion. The fact Thor was beaten impressed many of them, but they still wondered if the story that had been told was correct. Like for Jaune and his friends, Thor hadn't come off as mentally ill.

Jaune himself was treated with more…if not respect, general seriousness than before. The fact he'd come up the the tactic to finally beat Thor seemed to have leaked out, although the specifics clearly didn't go with it because he heard several different version of the event.

But tonight, he'd push the thoughts out of his head. They had a dance tonight, and he had a date. Thor had been right about one thing at least. Pyrrha had indeed liked him more than he expected and…he was happy. He didn't feel like he should be, given what had happened to Thor, the part Jaune had played in it, and the fact that following Thor's advice lead to him and Pyrrha going together, he felt odd at the very least.

But he'd try to have a good time, for Pyrrha at least.

Ruby and Yang were not going. The two sisters had barely started to repair their relationship, and neither was willing to go out and socialize yet.

He'd found out what had happened, and it made him..mad? Sad? Upset, to say the least. He'd held Thor in higher regard than other students, even after finding out his…issues. That he'd do that to Ruby, even unintentionally, tainted his view of him.

He knew it wasn't exactly fair to hold him in the regard he did…or had.

Weiss had been to see him, and he'd offered apologizes to Ruby, but still…he couldn't help to be…disappointed in his behavior.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha's voice broke him out of his own thoughts.

He turned to look at her, and…she was beautiful. She wasn't wearing an extravagant dress, but there was beauty in it simplicity.

"Pyrrha, you…look great." Was all he could manage.

"Are you." She said, blushing ever so slightly "ready?"

"Yeah…let's head out." He took her hand as they walked out of the dorm.

* * *

Thor

News came to him slowly in his cell, old friends didn't come to talk. Weiss showed up a few more times, but Thor got a strong feeling it was out of a sense of obligation more than anything. Jaune had come twice, and brought news that he had finally asked Pyrrha out and they were dating, a small comfort for Thor to see friends happy and a rather larger one for Jaune, who had something other than his own misery to focus on.

Blake was the only one who came now and with true concern. He knew her secret, and he thought that was a factor, in the fact he kept it, and had helped her, in his own small way to conceal it. He wanted to think it was gratitude and genuine affection, but he couldn't put the possibility that she just wanted to keep him from revealing it to someone as a way of revenge out of his mind. He had no proof of this, but he'd become more suspicious since he'd been captured.

Blake was his primary source of information, not only about his friends, but the general going on's in the world he wasn't privy to here. The last he heard, the festival was starting and team RWBY was…not the most cohesive team in the field. Ruby and Yang were trying to navigate an incredibly complex emotional minefield, made all the more hazardous with how close they had been. That had been…he wasn't sure now, the timeline in his head so murky.

Neither had come to see him, and while he wasn't surprised, it made him despair even more. Ren, Nora and Pyrrha seem to have forgot he even existed.

Alone, that was how he felt. He'd felt this ever since he woke up in this world, but this cell made it a thousand time worse.

And to make matters worse, his dreams hadn't stopped. Despite what Ozpin and doctors had tried to do to ease and suppress them. The recurring one of the pool felt like a message that was just out of reach for him. He kept hearing the name "Mimir" which he knew, but didn't understand what it meant. The Well of Mimir granted wisdom to those who drank from it, but for a price. His own father had plucked out his own eye for a drink and had become all-knowing.

But he didn't know how it pertained to him. If it hadn't been so recurring and constant despite all efforts to stop it, he'd ignore it. But there was some information in it, he was sure of it he just didn't know what.

But he felt something looming, something great and terrible, and he was stuck here unable to stop it. Tired, he went to bed, which seemed to be happening more often than normal, as he slept to escape his life in this cell.

That night he dreamed again, but this was far more lucid. As he waded through the pool the voice spoke again. This time, the voice was clear and firm

"What knowledge do you seek great nephew?"

"Mimir?" was the first thing thing Thor said. The name had been all he'd heard for weeks, and in this pool with the voice calling him his "great nephew", it had to be Mimir.

"Yes nephew." The unseen voice answered. "What is it you seek to know?"

So many things, but two were more important than others. "Why am I here and how can I regain my power." Only to be greeted with silence. "Mimir?" Thor called out "Uncle?"

"Your father came to me once, seeking knowledge." Mimir's voice called out. "You know what he did for his answers." Thor's hand came unconsciously to his eye.

Could he even do it a dream? Would it matter.

Mimir apparently knew what he was thinking."When you're ready…simply do it, awake, asleep, it will not matter to me or the well. But nephew, I'll warn you, a mortals sacrifice doesn't mean as much as a gods, you will not learn as much as your father did, you decide what you wish to unlock the answer to before making your sacrifice."

"But I am a god!" Thor shouted.

"You were a god dear nephew, now your skein has been cut short, and now I've given you all the free advice I will. Make your choice."

Thor woke up with the distinct feeling like he hadn't even been asleep. He gently reached up to touch his right eye, the one that had been hurting after all these dreams, except now it didn't, with this particularly vivid dream…or vision he now thought.

His father had plucked out his own eye to drink from the well of Mimir. But how could he drop his eye into the Well from here? And what truly scared him was the assertion that he was just mortal now, not a god in mortal form, but just a mortal. Or had he misunderstood his uncle.

But this was progress, in some form. He needed time to think. Walking over to the intercom he used to call nurses or doctors he pressed the call button.

"Yes Thor?" A voice that only sounded vaguely familiar to him called over the intercom.

"Would it be all possible for a television to be brought down so I could watch the festival tournament?"

He wasn't all that interested in seeing most of the fights, but he wanted some background noise while he thought, and besides, he would like to see how teams JNPR and RWBY were doing in it either way.

"Yes, as a matter of fact Headmaster Ozpin thought you might want to watch at some point, a reward for good behavior." The voice had a hint of a laugh in it, and Thor was prickly enough now to think they were laughing at him, but had learned quickly that here outbursts lead to sedation, and he wasn't ready to go back to the Well of Mimir.

A nurse wheeled a cart down in front of his cell, not into it he noticed, and used the draw used to give him his meals to hand him the remote.

"Channel 9 for the festival." The nurse said. He hadn't learned any of their names, he barely had any interaction with them, but he knew this one. She was one of the nicer ones, and he smiled and thanked her.

He turned on the television and saw with some surprise that Yang was fighting in the single division. He'd missed so much of the tournament if they were into the singles event.

The boy she was fighting was good, maybe better than she was. But whatever Yang lacked in skill, she was making up for in grit and toughness. The boy was noticeably flagging while Yang was just building up more and more steam.

Then all at once the fight seemed to end, which felt odd to Thor. The boy had been showing some signs of fatigue, but not enough to just crumple like he did.

Then…he almost couldn't believe what he saw, Yang shot him through the leg, sending him down to the ground in agony. The feed cut out there and Thor was left with a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Thor you okay?" a voice called over the intercom "Your heart rate spiked."

"I'm fine." He said as he stood up and started rubbing his temples, so much for a distraction to calm him down.

* * *

Ozpin

Things were not well, he'd felt it for a while, but Ms. Xiao Long's unprovoked attack had somehow managed to crystallize it in a way that it hadn't been before.

She had of course said he attacked her, and he believed she believed that was what had happened. But she had been under a large amount of stress and with the adrenaline of combat, she might have seen any number of things.

That aside, there was still the issue of the Fall maiden to see to. Ms. Nikos hadn't given an answer and with her upcoming match, he worried more and more about the entire situation, that another incident might happen.

Given how positive the school year had started, it seemed to be crumbling now and he was certain it was her doing. She was always out there, against him.

* * *

Thor

He felt sick now, watching as the girl Pyrrha had been fighting lay on the ground, cut in half. She was an android, but he'd had friends who were the same, and she was so young. Pyrrha looked devastated and soon someone, a young woman by her voice, was making a declaration about…things he didn't care to hear.

Once she finished, the feed cut out, and a few moments later, the emergency lights came on in his cell. He ran over the intercom and shouted "What's going!"

"Stay calm Thor." The nurse said. "We're going into emergency lock down, the Kingdom is under attack. Don't worry you'll be fine, if you need something to calm down, we can give you something."

Thor stopped listening and walked away from the intercom. "Alright uncle." He said, using his right hand to spread the eyelids of his right eye and reaching up with his left hand, fingers like claws. "Show me how to regain my power."

With a sudden plunge he dug his fingers into his eye and hissed in pain, but kept digging, lighting arching off his hand and out of his eye until he managed to rip it out and hold it above him and the lighting, which didn't feel like his own arced and made it disappear.

"Thor what are you doing!" The voice over the intercom shouted.

Thor just dropped to his knee, hand over his empty socket, feeling drain and…nothing. No sudden knowledge, no epiphany, no surge of power.

"Father…" He muttered "Why did you send me here? And where are you when we need you most…I need you the most." He looked around his cell for any sign and saw nothing, and a subtle dread that he might indeed be what Ozpin said he was, a mentally ill boy."Father!" He cried out "Please!" he crumpled over in a kneeling heap "Show me a sign you can hear me." He whispered, almost crying.

A crashing sound came from above him, and he looked up just in time to see his cell shattered to piece by a fast moving object. Reaching out, he caught it.

All over Vale storm clouds formed, lightning flashed and thunder cracked.

And when the nursing staff got to Thor's cell, it was empty, shattered, with massive hole in the ceiling.


	12. Update

So I wanted to give an update on this story.

It's not dead, to be clear.

But I've run into some issues.

First. My computer gave up the ghost. And while I had several chapters uploaded prior to this they are in the rough stages, not somthing I'd publish.

Second my beta reader could no longer continue to do so. No hard feelings and I'm infact grateful for they work they did, it was pure charity work and I'm happy to of had the help.

But without a computer to write and edit on or a beta to check, I'm not happy with what I've written. So I'm just holding off until I can get a proper replacement.

So I'm just waiting until I have a proper computer to edit and write on. Otherwise this would all be done from my phone, which is what I'm doing to write this and it would be an inferior product.

Thanks for sticking with me and hope to continue soon.


	13. Chapter 12

AN: Okay, so here's the thing. I had a bunch of these chapters written, but then once I lost my last computer, I just sort of sat on them and eventually decided I didn't like them. So this is more or less a re-write of what chapter I was going to post before my last computer gave out.

I still don't know if I like it, but I've been sitting on this for a while, and I no longer think I can look at this objectively, now that I no longer have a beta reader.

This chapter is also technically the first half of one chapter, but I decided to cut it half.

* * *

Pyrrha

Unstoppable was… that all she could think. Cinder…she was unstoppable. Everything that was thrown at her only slowed her down at best. On her knees, she looked up to see Cinder standing over her.

In all of this, throughout her life, she'd never been pushed like this. Thor and Penny both challenged her, but Cinder was different. Thor and Penny hadn't been nearly as vicious as Cinder, who seemed to revel in strength difference between them. She got the distinct impression that she was being toyed with, which was also new.

Now…here in the end, she thought of her actions, and her one regret was Penny, …and the anguish washed over her again.

She saw the dragon Grimm eyeing them, and there was a malignant intelligence behind those eyes. That scared her, and all these negative emotions, this isn't how she'd imagined it ending.

A thunderclap broke her thoughts, and she looked back to Cinder, smirking at her.

In a flash, however, she was gone. A roar came from the Grimm, and it fell from the tower, and the air was heavy with a static charge, and burning hair.

"Pyrrha?" a small voice came from her left.

"Ruby?" She said, looking to see her friend crest the top of the tower.

* * *

Cinder

The lightning was more potent than any dust equivalent she'd ever felt. It felt like it bypassed her aura and hit her dead on. She didn't even remember hitting the ground or also getting to her knees, but her muscles ached, and as she tried to get her barrings, she noticed the charred remains of Atlas hardware and White Fang operatives littered the area. As she shook the cobwebs, the black wisps of dead Grimm caught her eye. Standing up, she swayed on her feet before finding her ground, she noticed that the Dragon…was withered and fading into dust.

This was not right…it wasn't fair…this wasn't how it was supposed to go. Cinder was supposed to win, to get the power she was promised.

Something landed on the ground behind her. She turned to see the figure of a man…her eyes were fogging up again, and she had to blink several times to focus again. Once she saw who it was, she closed her eyes tight and shook her head.

"You're locked up." She said, opening her eyes again to see if the phantom was gone…he wasn't.

"I received a pardon," Thor said, walking forward. He was holding a hammer, not the one he had before, this one was much smaller. He was also dressed in…she didn't know what, silver armor and long red cape, the most striking feature on him was his right eye. It was glowing blue-white, and electricity was arcing out of it.

He didn't say another word but threw the hammer at her. She knew he was strong, but even then, it hit with speed and force she hadn't been ready for, even after bracing herself the attack it felt like getting hit by a train. The sensation was utterly disorientating, the world rolled around her, and at first, she felt no pain initially, but once she lay on the ground, face in the dirt, she felt the pain creep in. Mostly her arms, but her whole body was now shaking.

Putting her arms under herself, she pushed herself up from the ground, only to feel a boot stomp on her back, pushing her face into the dirt again. A moment later, she felt it under her ribcage, and a swift kick flipped her onto her back.

Gasping for air, she looked up to see Thor looming over her, a look of pure disgust on his face. She didn't feel like she was looking at a teenage boy at that moment. It was like being with Salem when she was angry…but worse…much, much worse.

"Wait!" She gasped out, thrusting her hands out, "Wait! Just wait."

His expression softened, and some of the tension left his face. Something had changed in his whole demeanor in a fraction of a second.

That was when she attacked. Unleashing a torrent of flame that engulfed Thor. Rolling to her feet and jumping away, she turned to see…with dawning horror that he stood there, his hair wasn't burned, and again his face filled with rage.

In an instant, he closed the gap between them and grabbed the front of her shirt, and before she knew what was happening, she was in the air. As she tumbled, she managed to stabilize herself and get a look at where she was, and her heart sank, she was high enough to look down on the top of the damaged tower.

"How is he that strong?!" she thought with panic, to throw her that high that fast…but her thoughts were distracted by a loud thunderclap that shook her bones, followed by a bright flash that brought darkness.

* * *

Ruby

She had seen some genuinely remarkable things this day, but this storm was… she didn't know how to explain it as anything other than alive…and angry. But she felt…safe…even at the top of the tower. Pyrrha wanted to get off as soon as possible, she had been sure that being on the tower in the middle of an electric storm was going to result in an accident. She, in fact, was sure it had already happened, and she'd only been spared due to her semblance.

But Ruby was confident there was more to it. The lightning and wind, tornadoes even, were leaving buildings, students and civilians untouched. Granted, she only knew this because she had run here through it all while Pyrrha had been busy in the school doing…whatever it was she'd been doing before she picked a fight with Cinder.

Pyrrha hadn't left her, though, as they both looked over the events as they unfolded below them.

It was…awe-inspiring, and the raw power was unlike anything she'd ever witnessed. But how was it so … direct?

It was terrifying and beautiful at the same time, and she knew … everything was going to turn out alright.

* * *

Thor

After striking Cinder down, he looked at his hand, flexing his fingers, marveling at his power. He'd forgotten in his years as a mortal. Physically he didn't look any different, wardrobe aside, but it was night and day in how he felt. Even his senses were enhanced, his hearing and vision were picking up on things he couldn't remember ever noticing while human.

Spinning Mjolnir, he launched himself into the air. Even from the height of a skyscraper, he could pick out details on the ground, even the fly's laying egg's on the corpses of the White Fang operatives.

Most of the threats were dead, destroyed, in-flight, or otherwise incapacitated. But out of the corner of his eye, Thor noticed a familiar mane of blonde hair.

"Yang…and Blake." He muttered to himself, the sense of betrayal welling up inside him at the sight of them. But it didn't take more than a glance to see something was wrong. Blake supporting Yang, but both were clearly injured and were…running from something.

He spotted the threat… White Fang…Adam Taurus.

Flying towards him, he threw his hammer and… missed? That wasn't right…he never missed. Holding his hand out to call Mjolnir back and … he felt it, but it wasn't right, it was like he was in a tug of war with it.

And he was losing altitude, he wasn't really falling…yet, but his power was leaving him.

"So…" he muttered to himself as he started to pick up speed as he fell "not yet."

* * *

Blake

As she and Yang limped through the storm, she couldn't help but notice how directed the storm seemed to be, while also being far more violent than any she'd ever seen, the sheer number of lightning strikes within the city alone was staggeringly high. But how it only seemed to hit Grimm, Atlas Machines, or White Fang members, it was like an angry god had unleashed its wrath on the enemy.

But the sudden change in the flow of the battle had made Adam…more vicious, she didn't know if it was desperation or rage, but he was on their tail, and his sword was working like a lightning rod, which not only kept him from being killed, but it was super chagrining his semblance. If he caught them, she didn't want to think about it.

A sudden thumping behind her made her heart stop as she turned, expecting to see Adam, ready to finish the fight. Instead, she saw.

"Thor?" Blake said as Thor started to stand up.

"What happened to you two?" He said, limping over to them.

"Could ask you the same thing." Yang's voice cut in, and it was then that Blake noticed the bloody mess of his right eye.

Something grinding along the ground behind her made her ears perk up, and she turned her head quickly to see if Adam had caught up to them. Instead, she saw a mallet moving along the concrete of the path. She watched as it rose to Thor's hand, and while it floated gently to his hand, one he gripped it, it seemed to lose all power of movement as Thor grunted with the effort to hold…eventually using both his hands, even then it seemed to be quiet heavy.

"Thor…" She started.

"Go, I'll handle Adam," Thor said, walking away from them.

"Thor…how did you know…"She started but confused on how he could know the current situation.

"Go!Now!" he shouted, looking back at them enough make her heart jump a beat, with the sudden aggression in his voice.

Grabbing hold of Yang more firmly, she started pulling her partner closer and moving as fast as she could.

"Thor…don't," Yang mumbled.

Blake just pulled her partner with her, a whirlwind of emotions in her soul fear, anger, and…hope. Almost paradoxically…hope.

* * *

Adam

Blake and her…a friend had slipped his line of sight, but the blood trail they left was to easy enough to follow.

This had been a near-total disaster, but it didn't mean he couldn't have his own revenge. Blake and…her name were Yang, and if that who had replaced him…well it didn't matter, they would both be dead soon.

As he fantasized of how he'd make them both pay, he allowed himself the pleasure taking it slower in the chase, he wanted to savor this moment.

As he walked, he passed a fountain, and in the center was a statue, showing what he imagined to be two lovers in an embrace.

His anger flared at this, and with a swipe of his sword, he obliterated it.

"Adam Taurus?" A voiced called.

He turned to see…rather worn-out looking man. He carried a mallet in both his hands, unusual given the handle was clearly meant for one hand.

"Yes." He responded, "Who are you?"

"Thor Odinson." He responded, holding his hammer before him, "I'll give you one chance to surrender."

Adam chuckled at this." You… don't look particularly in a state to give me anything." He raised his sword and pointed it at the newcomer.

"So be it," Thor said and raised his hammer in both hands. "Then at least…you will die a warriors death, it's the least you can be offered after the life you have lead."

Adam was a little off-put by this but raised his sword for an attack. "Die." He said and rushed his target.

"To Valhalla." He heard Thor say, and he rushed forward.

He was faster than Adama expected, the tip of his sword was meet with the head of the hammer.

But his heart stopped when he saw the tip of his sword break, and the hammer hit him in the chest just under his neck. Despite the force of the impact, he felt the rest of his sword strick the arm on his attack. The fool had actually helped him in his attack, had he just stopped or deflect the sword it would have missed entirely. But now he was injured, maybe even missing an arm.

Adam was a little winded but still capable of fighting. He thought of his successes, and the force of Thor's attack threw him back. Adam felt the hammer on his chest, Thor had clearly let go once his arm had been severed.

He landed in the fountain. It was only two feet deep, and as Adam sunk to the bottom, Adam thought how he'd kill Blake and her girlfriend.

But as he tried to sit up, he couldn't rise. Something was sitting on his chest. Reaching with his off-hand, he felt a handle, and tried to lift it…to no effect. He tried rolling and shifting his weight to no effect.

Dropping the hilt of his sword, he grasps the object he knew now was the hammer and tried to free himself from under its weight.

Something thing this size couldn't hold him in place and not cave his chest in. He thrashed and tried to pry it off. But it didn't budge.

In his panic, he gasped and too late remembered he was underwater. His lungs filled with water, and suddenly he felt…much more peaceful.

His mask had slipped off in his struggle, and he saw dime light through the water…air so close…but so far, funny in a way.

He a hand on his head…it was comforting…he felt it's intent… to carrying him to whatever was next…another life or nothing at all.

What his one of the gods he'd never believed in?

* * *

Thor

As Thor watched Adam struggle and die, he places his one remaining hand on his forehead…Adam had hit him indeed and severed his left arm, truly impressive to land a decisive in such strike, in another circumstance he'd of won…but Thor couldn't afford it now.

He didn't like the trick of using Mjolnir's enchantment, but he wasn't in a place to not use tricks, he was weak now, even by his prior human standards, a missing eye and bum leg made and "fair fight" unfair, and he'd lost his arm.

Adam's movements and stopped, and the bubbles from the water stopped.

"Be at peace…beast," Thor muttered for in the end, that was Adam had let himself become, but he was still to be pitied, he knew more about him now than most, thanks to Mimir.

Once he was sure Adam had expired, he wrapped his arm in his own shirt. His aura had kept him from bleeding out and would likely keep doing so, but Thor spent and few minutes helping it along but wrapping his injury.

He felt detached from his body after returning to his mortal form; he knew he was hurt, incredibly severely, but it just didn't seem important right now, and as he walked over to his hammer, he felt more like he was floating than walking.

He gripped Mjolnir and pulled it off Adam's corpse and took nine steps before suddenly collapsed to the ground, letting go of his hammer he dropped to the ground.

As he faded, he rolled onto his back and stared at the sky and tried to fight off the fog of unconsciousness.

"Father." He muttered as his eye closed.

* * *

Ruby

"There is nothing wrong with him," Th doctor said, but as Ruby listened and her father rubbed her shoulder, she felt her temper flare, but her own meek nature kept er from exploding like her sister might have done.

"Nothing wrong, …he's." was all she managed to say as she looked at Thor in his hospital bed.

"Let me rephrase." The Doctor said in a softer voice. "He's doesn't have anything keeping him from waking up, my guess, he overexerted himself and combined with his injuries… just needs rest. He'll come too young lady, don't worry about your friend." He said as he left the room.

That wasn't what made Ruby worry though, it was the fact that Thor had broken out…somehow, and she didn't know what would happen to him once he woke up.

She knew what she thought…but she didn't know what the school, council, and hospital thought…or knew. But at the very least, Yang and Blake said he'd picked a fight with and apparently killed Adam Taurus.

From what she'd managed to piece together because neither Blake or Yang had seen the match, but Adam was dead, and Thor had lost and arm between when he'd meet Yang and Blake and when he'd been found. And they were found in the same vicinity.

The only thing was Adam had apparently been drowned in a fountain. And Adam's broken sword was found in the water as well. No one idea seemed to be accepted in the rumor mill, but the most recurring one was Thor had, somehow, broken Adam's weapon after being hurt and just used his physicality to just hold him under the water. Brutal and not all how Ruby would have thought a fight between the two would have gone, but it was a passable theory right now, especially for anyone who knew how physically strong Thor was.

Some other rumors were floating around that he'd spotted all over the place, killing Grimm, Rouge Atlas drones, and White Fang members. This seemed to be causing some debt with the few officials she'd overheard, and it seemed to her that they thought even if he was crazy, he might prove more useful out of institutionalization.

But she knew what she'd seen at the top of the tower. That wasn't an accidental lightning strike, it was to direct and too helpful to be anything but a direct assist, and it all lined up with Thor's escape.

Her father broke her thoughts, "I'm going to check on your sister." He squeezed her shoulder slightly tighter then let go and left.

Thor was in such bad shape, missing an arm and eye, and some severe injury to his leg. The Doctor mentioned it might not ever really heal properly.

"Thor…if you can hear me, I'm sorry for…" She couldn't put her finger down on what she wanted to apologize for, she felt like there was a lot, but in the haze of it all, she couldn't manage to bring one out and just settled on "everything." She pulled a chair up to his bed, "Weiss is gone." She muttered, "Her dad came and took her after the attack. Didn't matter to him that the school stopped it, Blake thinks he was just waiting for any reason."

She held his hand, squeezed it, and looked at his face. He had several deep cuts, but the most grievous injury was his missing eye. It wasn't damaged, it was wholly gone, according to the Doctor, which was so bizarre. Like it had been pulled out.

His hair, while not as long as when they had met, was growing back. After Weiss had…well, it had been an accident, but it was now shaggy like Jaune's, although not even as long as Jaune's. She brushed a lock of it out of his face.

"Get well soon." She whispered in his ear and left.

* * *

Thor

He'd been sitting in the well for…well he felt like it could have been minutes or days, this place always made him feel a disconnect from time. But here he was whole, his eye and arm still present, although they still ached as if injured.

Mimir didn't answer his calls, and his father didn't answer him. The last thing he remembered from the waking world was walking away from Adam Taurus after…well drowning him. Then collapsing, if he ever woke up, he thought he knew how to return to his true form. Well, he was reasonably sure anyway.

Then he heard Ruby's voice come from…it felt like everywhere, but mostly above.

'If you can, hear me.'

"Ruby! I can! Wake me up!" He called into the darkness, but she kept talking, and he felt like someone was gripping his had, and a slight breeze brushed his hair. Then there was silence. Along again in this well. "Wake me up." He plopped down in the water, muttering to himself.

* * *

Yang

"Son of…" Yang near shouted as she walked into the door to her bathroom. She'd raised an arm that wasn't there to push the door open. Reaching out, she opened the door with her remaining hand and walked into the hospital bathroom and grabbed her toothbrush, and reached out…with nothing again. "Damn it."

She was not adjusting to injury, she kept trying to use her missing arm and dropping things. The physical pain wasn't the worst part, although the low ache kept her up at night. No, the worst part was the dreams and the feeling of helplessness.

Adam was dead, but his phantom lurked in the back of her mind, and while Blake didn't mention it, she was certain Blake was dealing with her own issues and only left the subject alone out of respect for Yang's feelings.

She knew she should feel lucky, given what had happened to Penny, that the fact she was alive was a miracle. Once the whole invasion had gone belly up, Adam had turned into a vicious predator, pursuing them in a way that made even Blake unnerved.

Thor had…well, she didn't know how he'd actually beaten Adam because he was looking rough when they ran into him. From what was known, Adam had been drowned in a fountain, and Thor had lost an arm in the fight.

How'd he even managed to beat beat Adam who was one of many mysteries surrounding him right now, like how he'd escaped his cell and what else he'd done before he ran into them and Adam. He'd lost an eye somewhere in all that.

A knock on the door caused her to stop her line of thought.

"Yang, you need any help in there?" Blake's voice came through the door.

"No…I'm fine." She called through the door as she managed to get her toothbrush to lay flat on the sink and apply the toothpaste. She had taken so much for granted before, and now it was just so…different.

As she brushed her teeth, there was another knock at the door, "Yang, you okay?" her father's voice called.

"Yeah." She called through the door with her toothbrush still in her mouth, with a slight ting of aggravation. She knew this was from a place of concern, but she wasn't helpless; she just wished everyone would stop acting like she was an invalid.

After she finished brushing her teeth, she thought she was smelling a bit rip and decided to take a shower. The doctors didn't encourage a full bath every day until her skin had healed, but if she did, she had to try and keep the dressing as dray as she could. This was irritating, but she knew it was for the best.

It had been a couple days since her last proper shower, and she decided it was time for it again, her hair, in particular, felt greasy.

As the water poured over her, she couldn't help but think of her life and how it was… more than a bit chaotic since her childhood. Her mother, step-mother, some of her own choices, her first year in beacon, her relationship with her sister, the festival.

"What a life." She muttered to herself as she turned the water off when she was done cleaning herself. She didn't know where to go from here if she'd go back to school if that was even viable right now.

The festival had happened near the end of the year, and Goodwitch, now acting as headmistress after Ozpin, had disappeared, had given students the option of putting off returning for up to six months.

As she dried her hair, she thought about going to visit Thor. He was three rooms down and…hadn't woken up yet. She was so mad at him, for a whole litany of reasons she knew she didn't really have a right to be. It was guilt partially, over what she had done and what he'd done for them.

He was so…goddamn weird in how he acted, especially for someone his age. He saved the people who'd helped lock him up in a mental institute, without a second thought, and at a marked disadvantage, and he won.

"Idiot…" she muttered to herself, and she clumsily got dressed.

In her hospital room, her father and Blake were waiting for her.

"So," her dad began, "You ready to get out of here?"

"Yeah…" She said, not sure where he was going.

"Well." Blake cut in, "The Doctor said you can leave tomorrow…if you want." She said.

"Kay…" Yang muttered as she sat in her chair next to her bed. "Where is Ruby?"

Blake and her father looked at each other in a movement that might have been a slight twitch to anyone else, but Yang knew both of them to well not to notice.

"She was in Thor's room earlier." Blakes said, "I think she went to get something to eat."

Yang didn't need them to say it…Ruby had fallen off their radar, and they didn't want to worry her by saying they didn't know where she was. But Yang wasn't worried, Ruby capable of looking after herself and had been dealing with her own fair share of issues. She still hadn't told anyone what had happened at the top of the tower, and Pyrrha was just as tight-lipped. It was something of an issue to the authorities, but Yang didn't care all that much.

"Well." She said, "She can stop by later." Yang took a deep breath and climbed back into bed, "Or when I get home."

"Yang," Blake said, sitting next to her "I'm…"

"Sorry." Yang finished for her, reaching out and grasping her hand." I know." She added with a smile, "I wasn't your fault."

"Well." Her father said, standing up, "I'll leave you two alone."

And Yang couldn't help but smirk at Blake's red flushed face as her father left the room.

* * *

Thor

The well was becoming tiresome, to the point he thought he might be dead, and this was the purgatory some of the Christians spoke of.

"Nephew." A voice called through the void.

"Uncle!" Thor called.

"What are you still doing here?" Mimir called, " You know how to leave."

"Uncle…what, do you mean!?" Thor called out. He was at the point of pure madness here and wanted out.

"You know…if you are worthy." Mimir's voice called through the void, and at that moment, Thor thought he knew what he needed to do.

He held his hand out and… felt a pull, and in the pull, he felt energy empowering him.

* * *

Blake

As she sat in the hospital cafeteria, Blake couldn't help but think over everything. Everything was so weird right now. Weiss was gone, the school in shambles and so many other things had changed. Adam..dead, gone. Her life had changed very quickly in a few days, hours even if the final events of the festival were considered alone.

The whole ordeal had left her and more than a few of her fellow students in a foggy mindset, they all weren't sure where to go from here.

She'd stay with Yang, after the virtual obliteration of Adam's sect of the White Fang, she felt oddly clean of her past mistakes. Not fully clean but like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Like a rain cloud that had been following her around had been blown away, and the sun was shining on her again in her life.

She felt guilty over her relief, given all the terror and damage Adam had been responsible for, and she'd helped him in some of those cases, but the shadow had lifted on her life at least, she was grateful for that at least.

A sudden thunder crack shook her out of her thoughts and made her jump a solid three feet in the air. Thunder didn't typically scare her, but this so close it actually made the building shake, and she thought for a second it had been a bomb.

Her ears hurt from it, and she had to sit down. A ringing noise seemed to get louder for a few seconds before it tapered off. Only after she could hear again did she hear the call over the P.A system.

"Security to room 616." It said before cutting off. It was odd to her; they only said it once, until she realized she'd probably missed the initial call while her ears had been ringing.

Then it clicked in her head. 616 was Thor's room.

Bolting up, she ran, and as she approached Thor's room, she saw a mane of blonde hair that could only be Yang.

"Yang." She called as they both got to the door at the same time and peered in to see the window blown out and a burning ozone smell.

* * *

Thor

The Grimm's skull shattered like glass as he brought Mjolnir down on its head. Three more came from behind, but a back-swing from his hammer killed them as quickly as swatting a fly.

He raised his hammer again and called the lighting. For a moment, it was like he was in a forest where the trees were made of his lightning.

Rising into the air, he surveyed his surroundings and saw the black mist of the dead Grimm rising in various spots from around the forest he was in.

He wanted to smile at this. His power was his, but it was fleeting, and he wasn't in the best placement.

Suddenly the power left, and he dropped to the ground, his leg buckling under him, he grunted in pain but didn't cry out.

Mjolnir felt heavy in his hand, and looking at it, he dropped it and walked thirty paces from it and held out his hand trying to summon it. It moved but didn't fly to his hand like it had when he'd woken up in the hospital or when he'd escape the institute. Instead, it was like after he'd lost his power the first time after his escape, it looked like it was being dragged.

Eventually, once it was about three feet away, it slowly floated into his hand.

Mimir had been right, he knew…well in a fashion. He wasn't clear on the specifics, but he was confident of a few things now. He couldn't use his real power endlessly; he had some sort of limit on it. Whether that was time or how much force, he wasn't sure, but he needed to rest for now.

Looking around, he saw nothing but tree's, but that was why he picked this island, a low population area, although he did see a small city most of the island was wilderness. He felt so tired…he found a tree and sat under it, closing his eye to sleep. He wasn't worried about Grimm, he'd killed them all in the area.

He could feel them when he was in his godly form; even as a mortal, he could feel them, but when he was transformed, it was like they were beacons in his mind practically calling the lightning to them.

He felt…at peace, if not happy. He drifted off to sleep, his injury's ached slightly, but before long he slept.

He didn't dream this time. Instead, he felt like he just closed his eye, then next thing Thor knew he bouncing off the ground.

Thor tried to push himself up with an arm that wasn't there anymore and cursed before using his right arm. Looking up, he saw large Ursa charging him.

Holding his hand out, he called for his hammer…not sure if it would come.

The Grimm swiped at him, and while he tried to step back, his leg buckled slightly, and it managed to drag one of its claws across his face, opening stitches while adding a new gash to his face.

But before it could attack again, loud CRACK sounded, and it was split in two.

Mjolnir came to his hand, and he transformed. And he felt them…Grimm… a hundred score.

"How?" Thor muttered to himself, before deciding that at the moment, that wasn't what was necessary.

He would have to work fast.


End file.
